The Oklahoma City Bombing and th

This entire book was reproduced with deep gratitude from the Constitution Society
who did all the labor of scanning the book and making it available on the internet.
Thank You!

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Ace Hayes, my friend and primary mentor, who passed away as this book went to press. As a speaker, and through his small newspaper, the Portland Free Press, Ace hammered away at the establishment with a loquacious cynicism and wit. Ace fought the battle with both pen and sword, dodging the law on the front lines of the trenches. He was both inspirational and instrumental in bringing this book to light. His friendship and counsel will be sorely missed.

Note: The names of certain individuals have been changed and noted in the text. Libel law does not make generous allowances for the use of real names in the case of a person who has not been officially indicted, or who has not gone public (i.e., been previously interviewed in print or on TV), or who is not a public figure.

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you mad."
— Aldus Huxley

Acknowledgements

The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the help and assistance of the following people, without whose help this story could not have been told: Melissa Klinzing and Brad Edwards, KFOR-TV, Nolan Clay, Daily Oklahoman, Rodney Bowers, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Larry Myers and Rich Azar at Media Bypass, Juval Aviv of Interfor, Don Browning, Jon Rappaport, author of Oklahoma bombing: The Supressed Truth, Michele Moore, author of Oklahoma City: Day One, former DEA agent Mike Levine, Jesse Clear, Mark Sanford, Paul Friend, Idaho News Observer, video producer Chuck Allen, Oklahoma City: What Really Happened?, JD Cash and Jeff Holladay of The McCurtain County Gazette, Britt Anderson and the writers at Mother Jones, The Village Voice, Frances McMorris, The Wall Street Journal, Mike Whitely, Mike Vanderboegh, Mike Kemp, Ted Gundersen, Steve Wilmsen and Mark Eddy of the Denver Post, Mark Schafer, Arizona Republic, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, London Sunday Telegraph, Clayton Douglas, The Free American, Charlie Hatfield, Ellis County Press, Brian Redman, Conspiracy Nation, Ben Partin, The folks at the BBC, Sarah McClendon, Bob Hall, Conspiracy Nation, Ken Armstrong, Rita Cosby, Fox News, John Mattes, Julian Share, CBC, Louis Champon, Roger Bunn, Anthony J. Hilder, Rick Sherrow, Audrey Cummings, Moshe Tal, Stu Webb, Glenn Wilburn, Pat Briley, Monte Cooley, Idaho Observer, The Free American, Hoppy Heidelberg, Eric Lighter, Bill Key, Martin Keating, Linda Thompson, Ramona McDonald, Robert Bickel, Tony Scarlatti, Dr. Rick Nelson, Robert Jerlow, Robert Peterson, Jason at CBS archives, David Parker, Billy at the Daily Oklahoman library, and the librarians at the Washington Post, New York Times, Dallas Morning News, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Toronto Star, Covert Action Quarterly, and others, Joe Taylor at Newstrack in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Ann Bradley and Christie, and others in Stephen Jones' office, D'Ferdinand Carone, the clerks in the Oklahoma county and federal courts, and scores of others who have selflessly provide information from their own research and investigations into this and other scandals.

My publisher, Adam Parfrey, who instinctively understood the significance of this crime, and, took a chance on me when none of big publishers would.

State Representative Charles Key, who became a good friend. A man whose humor, faith, and courage to stand up and publicly question the governments' official line, putting his life and his career on the line, became an anchor for us all.

Jayna Davis of KFOR, the original lead investigator on the Middle Eastern angle, even though the New York Times Broadcasting Company shut down her investigation and took away her helicopter and cell phone.

David Hall of KPOC-TV, who gave me most of the leads I wouldn't have gotten anywhere else. Last I heard, the IRS was screwing with Hall because of his courageous work on the Waco case.

Craig Roberts, whose patience and generosity proved invaluable. Craig was a staunch ally whose tenacity and good humor proved an inspiration when I became frustrated (which was pretty often).

Craig's cop friend Randy, who sneaked into the NCIC now and then when we needed it.

Leslie Jorgensen, (Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report ) a great gal with a marvelous sense of humor, who kept me up to date on the latest gossip and straightened me out about certain lawyers.

Gene Wheaton, who took me for a circuitous ride through the desert to talk to me in a scene reminiscent of Mr. "X" in the movie JFK, then regaled me mostly with personal stories about his interesting life.

Bill McCoy (may he rest in peace), who provided humorous translations for Wheaton's conspiracy theory theories, and was instrumental in keeping "scribblers" like me on the path.

Ace Hayes (may he rest in peace), publisher of the Portland Free Press, and my main mentor, who helped me to understand how the system really works, or at least the system according to Ace.

Sherman Skolnick, my other main mentor, who never let me forget how many years he's been in the business, and reminded me that I have a long way to go,

Will Northrop, "Matzo-Ball Charlie," who claimed to work for every Israeli intelligence agency except the Mossad, then took me for $1600 to sip Margaritas in Florida.

Mike Johnston, who accused me of stealing his book, Abu-Nidal: A Gun For Hire, when he knows full well that it was stolen by Chinese cleaning ladies and used as Won Ton wrappers.

James "Jimmy" Rothstein, whose openness, patience, and selflessness proved to be a guiding light in the murky and confusing world of spooks and criminals.

Mien Furher, Al Martin, Iran-Contra "insider extraodinaire," whose still waiting for his $100,000 retainer fee.

Bill Jasper of the John Birch Society, who is convinced it really is all a Communist plot.

George Wallace who introduced me to Jasper and kept the Commie hunters off my back.

Roger Cravens, Dave Rydel, Claire Wolfe, Jon Roland, and other Patriots who posted important and much-needed information on the state of our nation on the Patriots' Information Mailing List (PIML); and Ian Goddard, Bob Hall, and others who did the same on the OKBOMB mailing list.

Laurie Mylroie of the Foreign Policy Institute, for her in-depth analysis of the Iraqis and the World Trade Center bombing.

Terry Cook, for his videos and books, and his excellent and comprehensive research on the staggering new technology that is taking control over our lives.

Jim Levine, and Terry and Kelly, who handled our account and especially Jim's mother, who made me Chicken soup when I was sick.

And finally, Mr. "M," without who's generous financial support, none of this would have been possible.

And I can't leave out all those people who, although aware of the efforts of the authors and others in attempting to bring this information to the public, were either indifferent, or actually obstructed these efforts. The first of these honors goes to the so-called "Justice" Department and the FBI. And to the state Attorney General, Drew Edmondson, and the local District Attorney in Oklahoma City, Bob Macy, who has an annoying tendency to talk out of both sides of his mouth. Oh, Bob, what is that stench?!

And the supervisors of the business office of Southwestern Bell and specifically Mr. Edwards and Mr. Dave Lopez, President of SWB, whose cold, callous, indifference and lack of empathy when I became behind on my phone bill resulted in the termination of my phone service for three weeks, my poor old mother thinking I was dead, and the interruption of our investigation, which they were fully aware of.

And the kind and generous folks of M.C.I. Communications, who not only refused to sponsor our investigation, they never even sent a reply to my inquiry. May they and the principals of SWB get what they deserve.

And ultimately, all my friends who have kept me [partially] sane throughout the years, even though conspiracies have a way of making one come unglued: Ron Ulfohn, Joe Williams, John Flores, David Wills, Lorenzo, Jon and Lisa, and all those helpful souls I've undoubtedly missed, including my parents (although I'm not sure they've helped me keep sane).

Foreward

On April 19, 1995 when I heard the news (and literally heard the explosion) of the Murrah building, I was dumbfounded. As the realization sunk in that so many people and children were killed, I, along with millions of others watching the news coverage, felt that indescribable, overwhelming sensation in the pit of my stomach.

Yet as the "story" unfolded, my spirits were lifted as I saw example after example of sheer human compassion and an outpouring of unblemished, unconditional love flow forth in a far greater degree than I had ever seen in any venue of life, including and especially in political circles.

However, during the intense media coverage that followed, inconsistencies began emerging. Stories kept changing and although I couldn't see the emerging political angle, I could sense it. Those who dared oppose the revisionist news accounts were ostracized, mocked, discredited, dark-cornered, etc. I know, I was one who dared to be politically incorrect.

At some point it became painfully apparent that there was more wrong than right with the federal investigation. That is when I had a very tough decision to make. Should I sit and do nothing and remain in my comfort zone simply "playing the part" of the caring politician for the photo ops? Or should I really do the right thing even if it meant giving the phrase "politically incorrect" a whole new dimension?

It didn't take long after discussing it with my wife to determine that I had to do the right thing — no matter what the consequences were to be. Having come to that conclusion, I decided to go forward to search out the truth and tell it to a waiting world. Journalists such as David Hoffman, concerned citizens, and a few ex-law enforcement officers, have made many personal sacrifices to bring this truth to the American people.

In response, the major media launched unheard of attacks against our desire to conduct constitutionally sound and proper investigations. The Daily Oklahoman and the Tulsa World have published nine separate editorials viciously attacking me, Glenn Wilburn and all those who have stood up and demanded all of the truth about this terrible crime.

An editorial from the Daily Oklahoman entitled, "Drop It, Mr. Key" even had the audacity to say:

As we argued when Key first set out on this course, the Legislature and its staff had no business investigating the bombing. It was, and is, poorly equipped to do so. The same can be said of a panel of local citizens.

People in powerful positions have repeatedly attacked those of us who have scrutinized the federal investigation. Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson issued a personal attack saying that I was proposing a "wasteful witch hunt" and was pushing "the worst kind of paranoid conspiracy pandering."

Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, a former FBI agent himself, went so far as to say that "raising questions would not bring one whit of intelligence to the process." He later escalated his attacks saying those of us who were raising serious questions were "howling at the moon" and "off the reservation."

All of these people are literally robbing the victims family members and survivors — and all of us — the opportunity and right to know the truth.

All of us have had to fight the formidable disinformation and smear campaign waged by "faceless forces" that appear to have pockets of unending depth and the mass media at their beck and call.

Glenn Wilburn, who lost two grandchildren in the tragedy, and I filed a petition in November, 1995, to have a local county grand jury impaneled to investigate the bombing. This independent grand jury would be fully autonomous of the federal investigation, and would double in the capacity of a watchdog of the federal investigation.

Here in Oklahoma, we are very fortunate to be one of only two states that have a constitutional guarantee that the people of a county can cause a grand jury to be impaneled whenever they feel there is a need simply by circulating a petition. It is and always has been a common occurrence in our state.

Nevertheless, the Presiding State District Judge, Dan Owens, tried to stop us from petitioning to impanel the grand jury, and we were forced to appeal his actions to a higher court. That is where the latest and some of the most intense criticism has come from recently. One year after our appeal, we finally got a written opinion from the Court of Appeals in the Tulsa district. On December 24, 1996 the court ruled not only in our favor, but they did so unanimously.

Not only was it unanimous, but the court issued the decision "For Publication." That means that it was such a clear-cut case in regard to the state constitution, statutes, and previous case law, that it constituted a precedent-setting case to be used in lawbooks, most likely for many years to come.

Yet, why is there such extreme opposition to keep this independent grand jury from being allowed to assemble? As you will learn by reading this book, that is because some in our federal law enforcement agencies (i.e. ATF and FBI) had prior knowledge that certain individuals were planning to bomb the Murrah Federal Building!

Prior knowledge on the part of some individuals in the Federal Government may also be why the federal prosecutors barred every single witness to John Doe(s) from the Federal Grand Jury. Of the more than 20 witnesses to one or more John Doe(s), none — not even one — were allowed to tell the Grand Jury what they saw.

Additionally, when the prosecution's list of witnesses was unsealed, we found that the one witness who will be allowed to testify in the trial to McVeigh being in the company of a John Doe can't describe in any way who he saw. Indeed, the best witnesses who can positively place McVeigh in downtown Oklahoma City that morning saw him with one or more individuals and are able to describe to some degree what that person or persons looked like. Those witnesses were not even allowed to testify at McVeigh's trial.

As bizarre as that sounds, Federal Prosecutors were not allowing any of those witnesses to be seen or heard by the Federal Grand Jury. This gives "blind justice" a whole new meaning.

To make this even more clear, the Federal Grand Jury wanted to interview both the eyewitnesses and the sketch artist who drew the John Doe composites but they were flatly refused by the federal "authorities." Clearly they were blatantly deprived of their basic constitutional rights as grand jurors. Why?

Just what is it that they are trying to accomplish? Or, perhaps more pointedly, just who are they trying to protect? And what are they trying to hide?

Let's not forget, elected officials are supposed to be the servants of the people and not the other way around. Just what's going on? And how are they getting away with it?

Our efforts to reinvestigate the case before a county grand jury are important for numerous reasons. One of the reasons that concerns me most is that I fear that the record of McVeigh's trial will comprise the "official story" of what happened. If the evidence of prior knowledge and other perpetrators is not presented in this case, I fear that the government will be successful in shaping the official story to permanently exclude that evidence.

Another reason that I feel that the OKC bombing case is important and directly effects you is that the government has reached a new level of operating out of the bounds of the law and is becoming more and more arrogant. You will read about some of those cases in the second part of this book.

I don't know about you, but that kind of arrogance sickens me and leaves me with a eerie feeling. The government must not be allowed to get away with yet another botched job! The Government must be held accountable.

In spite of the seemingly impenetrable and insurmountable forces acting against us, on February 18, 1997 the Oklahoma State Supreme Court miraculously ruled in favor of allowing the independent county grand jury and against the Federal Government's attempt to quash the rights of the people. That grand jury is investigating the case as this book goes to press.

Based on two years of intense research and investigation, this book gives the public an insight into the evidence which the grand jury will confront. Hopefully now, the forgotten families, survivors, and victims who died from the blast will have their right to a full, open and truthful investigation of the events of April 19.

Sincerely,

Rep. Charles Key
State Capitol Bldg., Rm 508
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
(405) 521-2711

Publisher's note: The preceding Foreward was adapted for publication from an appeal letter sent by Representative Key to "concerned citizens" on 12 March 1997. Its publication in this book does not necessarily imply Rep. Key's endorsement of the author's conclusions. Both Rep. Key and David Hoffman spent long hours together investigating leads and sharing information regarding the Oklahoma City bombing.

Author's note: While Representative Key and the people of Oklahoma have succeeded in impaneling their grand jury, they are without the necessary funds to proceed with the investigation. Any contributions towards this effort may be sent to:

Oklahoma County Grand Jury &
Bombing Investigation Fund
Post Office Box 75669
Oklahoma City, OK 73147

"All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed."
— I.F. Stone

Introduction

The images are forever etched in our minds. Scorched, burning cars, pouring black smoke and charred, twisted metal. Piles of rubble, screaming sirens and battered, bloody bodies. And the babies. Frail, lifeless figures — tiny, silent witnesses of death and destruction.

In the early morning hours of April 19th, the Oklahoma City federal building had, in one long, horrible moment… exploded with the force of a volcano, spewing forth the contents of its human carnage onto the streets below. What had a few moments ago been the Alfred P. Murrah building was now a huge, gaping tomb. The entire façade of the nine-story superstructure had been ripped away, exposing its innards — dangling chunks of concrete, tangled strands of cables and bent pieces of rebar — into the choking, blackened sky. Now it stood smoking and eerily silent, except for the muffled cries of its few remaining inhabitants and the wailing of the sirens off in the distance.

One man, an ex-Marine, likened it to carnage he had witnessed in war-torn Lebanon. Another veteran, Thu Nguyen, who had his five-year-old son Christopher in the day care center, said, "I've seen war…. I've seen soldiers I fought with in Vietnam cut this way, cut in half, heads cut off. That was war. These are children. This is not a war. This is a crime."

The scene was surreal — almost too horrific to bear. There were bodies — and pieces of bodies — strewn about, along with childrens' toys and workers' personal effects — tragic reminders of what had moments before been the meaningful mementos of someone's life. One passerby had been wrapped around a telephone pole, her head blown off. Workers who had been sitting at their desks were still sitting there… lifeless, morbid, like eerie figures out of a wax museum of horrors.

Police detective Jay Einhorn remembers one scene: "There was a guy — a black guy — on the second floor, just sitting there. I knew he was dead. He's looking at me, and I'm looking at him… if you don't think that's fucking scary. We just said, man we gotta go up there and cover that guy up."^[1]

Daina Bradley, who was trapped under a slab of fallen concrete, was still conscious. With no way to remove her without upsetting the huge piece of concrete, doctors were forced to amputate her leg. As Bradley lay screaming in a pool of water, surgeons, using scalpels and saws, and without anesthesia, amputated her leg below the knee.

The federal office building, home to over 550 workers, had also housed a day care center. Nearby, a makeshift morgue had been set up in what had once been the childrens' playground. Refrigeration trucks lined up to haul away the dead bodies. "Sheriff Clint Boehler, from nearby Canadian County, recalls, "We went flying down there at about 110 miles an hour… you never saw so many services running over each other." As hundreds of volunteers poured in from all over the country, fireman, police and medical personnel began laying out the victims for identification. Shirley Moser, a nurse, began tagging dead children. "Their faces had been blown off, "said Moser. "They found a child without a head."

Those who were lucky enough to escape the carnage were wandering about, dazed and confused. One man, his face bloodied, wandered down the street, saying he was headed home, except that he couldn't remember his name or where his home was. Another man who was entering the building had his arm blown off, but was in such a state of shock that he didn't notice it as he went about trying to help others.^[2]

People who lived or worked nearby had been blown out of their chairs. Trent Smith, 240 pounds, was tossed seven feet into the air and through the window of his hotel room. Several blocks away, a bus filled with people was nearly blown on its side. The force of the blast extended for nearly 30 blocks, blowing out windows and heavily damaging a dozen buildings, and causing damage to almost 400 more.^[3]

When it was all over, more than 169 people, including 19 children, lay dead, and more than 500 were injured. The damage was estimated in the hundreds of millions.

Federal authorities were calling the bombing the single largest terrorist attack in the history of the United States. Yet it was difficult to discern whether the bombing was some ominous precursor to some as yet undeclared war, or the result of some criminal plot gone horribly awry. Just who had caused it wasn't clear.

As rescue workers continued the difficult task of searching for bodies, and hospital workers began attending to victims, law enforcement agents began searching for clues. What was clear as law enforcement personnel descended upon the scene, was that the blast had left a 30 foot wide, 8 feet deep crater in front of the building. Fortunately, a ATF agent who had recently attended a course on the identification of car and truck-bombs just happened to be in the federal courthouse. The agent was able to identify the cause of the blast immediately. He telephoned his superiors in Dallas and told them that an ammonium nitrate truck-bomb had just blown up the Murrah Building.

Sixty miles away, near Perry Oklahoma, Highway Patrolman Charles Hanger was making his usual rounds. Around 10:30 a.m. Officer Hanger noticed a battered 1977 yellow Mercury, without a license plate, speeding along at 81 miles an hour. Pulling the vehicle over, Hanger cited the driver, 26-year-old Timothy James McVeigh, for driving without a license plate. As he was about to let McVeigh go, Hanger noticed a distinct bulge under McVeigh's windbreaker. When he asked McVeigh what he had under his jacket, McVeigh casually informed the cop that he had a gun — a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol. Hanger subsequently arrested McVeigh for carrying a concealed weapon, driving without a tags, and driving without insurance.^[4]

Back in Oklahoma City, investigators were busily searching the wreckage for clues that could lead them to the perpetrators. It didn't take long for investigators to find what they were looking for — a piece of axle and a license plate — believed to have been part of the truck used in the bombing. After FBI agents ran the VIN (vehicle identification number) and the plate through their Rapid Start computer system, they discovered the vehicle belonged to a Ryder rental agency in Florida. A check with the agency revealed that the truck, a 1993 Ford, was rented out of Elliott's Body Shop in Junction City, Kansas. Elliott's said that they had rented the 20-foot truck to a Bob Kling on April 17th, and gave the FBI artist a description of two men who had rented the truck, known as Unsub #1 and Unsub #2.

Kling, Unsub #1, had listed his address as 3616 North Van Dyke Road in Decker, Michigan. The address was the home of James Douglas Nichols and Terry Lynn Nichols. A quick check of that address with the Michigan Department of Motor Vehicles revealed a license in the name of Timothy James McVeigh.

FBI agents interviewing James Nichols and relatives in Decker quickly learned that Timothy McVeigh was a friend of Nichols, who possessed large quantities of fuel oil and fertilizer. Armed with a search warrant, agents found 28 50-pound bags of fertilizer containing ammonium nitrate, a 55 gallon drum containing fuel oil, blasting caps, and safety fuse.

Interviews with neighbors[, including Daniel Stomber, Paul Isydorak and others,] revealed that the Nichols brothers and McVeigh had experimented with explosives, using household items to produce small bombs using bottles and cardboard cartons, which they would detonate on their property for fun. Witnesses also claimed that in December of 1993, McVeigh and one of the Nichols brothers had visited Thumb Hobbies, Etc. to inquire about purchasing 100% liquid nitro model airplane fuel. One of these witnesses had reported that James Nichols had repeatedly blamed the U.S. government for all the problems in the world.

Federal agents then decided they had enough evidence to arrest James Nichols, and to put out a warrant on his brother Terry, who was living in Herrington, Kansas. On April 22, Terry Nichols, wondering why his name was being broadcast on television, walked into the local police station in Herrington.

In the meantime, witnesses at the scene of the bombing had given FBI agents a description of possible suspects. While interviewing people in Junction City, agents spoke to the manager of the Dreamland Motel who recognized the composite sketch of the suspect the FBI called Unsub #1. The man had registered at the Dreamland from April 14 to April 18 under the name of Tim McVeigh, had driven a yellow Mercury, and provided an address on North Van Dyke Road in Decker, Michigan.

On April 21, Carl E. Lebron, a former co-worker of McVeigh's, recognized the composite sketch of Unsub #1 on TV and called the FBI. He said that the man was named Timothy McVeigh, and that he was possessed of extreme right-wing views, was a military veteran, and was particularly agitated over the deaths of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas in April, 1993. The man told the FBI that McVeigh expressed extreme anger towards the Federal Government. The man gave the FBI the last known address he had for McVeigh: 1711 Stockton Hill Road, #206, Kingman, Arizona.

Back in Perry, Oklahoma, McVeigh was still sitting in a cell at the Noble County Courthouse, waiting for his arraignment. After feeding McVeigh's name into the National Crime Information Center, the FBI discovered their suspect sitting quietly in the Noble County jail on a traffic and weapons charge. Just as McVeigh was about to be set free, District Attorney John Maddox received a call from the FBI telling him to hold on to the prisoner, that he was a prime suspect in the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

So, by good luck, diligent work, and an amazing series of coincidences, federal law enforcement authorities solved the most heinous crime in the history of the United States — all within 48 hours.

Or did they?

The Mannlicher-Carcanno Bomb

"It had to have been mined," said the gruff, gnarly voice on the other end of the line. "It's real simple. You cannot bring down a building like that without cutting charges set on the support pillars."

Bud, an ex-Green Beret who saw heavy combat in Vietnam, should know what he's talking about. Bud had military demolitions training — the kind taught to men who need to know how to blow up hardened targets.

"It couldn't have been done externally like that," added Bud. "Without cutting charges, there's just no way to do it."

Bud didn't want me to use his full name. He was worried about his VA benefits.

One man who wasn't worried about government reprisals was General Benton K. Partin. A retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General, Partin had responsibility for the design and testing of almost every non-nuclear weapon device used in the Air Force, including precision-guided weapons designed to destroy hardened targets like the Alfred P. Murrah Building. Partin has exhaustively researched the bombing and the resulting pattern of damage.

In a letter dated May 17, 1995, hand-delivered to each member of the Congress and Senate, Partin stated:

When I first saw the pictures of the truck-bomb's asymmetrical damage to the Federal Building, my immediate reaction was that the pattern of damage would have been technically impossible without supplementing demolition charges at some of the reinforcing concrete column bases…. For a simplistic blast truck-bomb, of the size and composition reported, to be able to reach out on the order of 60 feet and collapse a reinforced column base the size of column A-7 is beyond credulity.

The full text of Partin's report, reproduced in the appendix, is too complex to elaborate on here, says a truck filled with ammonium nitrate could not have caused the degree of damage done to the Alfred P. Murrah building. Not when it was parked at least 20 feet away from that building. Without direct contact, the fall-off from the blast would be too great to do any serious structural damage.^[5]

Another man who knows a thing or two about bombs is Samuel Cohen, inventor of the Neutron Bomb. Cohen began his career on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, where he was charged with studying the effects of the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During his 40 year career, Cohen worked with every application of nuclear weapons design and testing.

Cohen stated his position in a letter to Oklahoma State Representative Charles Key:

It would have been absolutely impossible and against the laws of nature for a truck full of fertilizer and fuel oil… no matter how much was used… to bring the building down.^[6]

Interestingly, the Ryder truck-bomb has earned the nickname the "Mannlicher-Carcanno Bomb" after the cheap Italian-made rifle with a defective scope that was allegedly used to kill President Kennedy. District Attorney Jim Garrison joked during the Shaw conspiracy trial that the government's nuclear physics lab could explain how a single bullet could travel through President Kennedy and Governor Connally five times while making several u-turns, then land in pristine condition on the President's gurney.

In the Oklahoma bombing case, it appears the government is attempting to perform a similar feat of light and magic. The fact that a non-directional, low-velocity fertilizer bomb parked 20 to 30 feet from a modern, steel-reinforced super-structure could not have caused the pattern and degree of damage it did is not being widely touted by the government or the mainstream press. The government expects the public to believe that two disgruntled amateurs blew up the Oklahoma City Federal Building with a homemade fertilizer bomb.

Dr. Roger Raubach doesn't believe the government. Raubach, who did his Ph.D. in physical chemistry and served on the research faculty at Stanford University, says, "General Partin's assessment is absolutely correct. I don't care if they pulled up a semi-trailer truck with 20 tons of ammonium nitrate; it wouldn't do the damage we saw there."

Raubach, who is the technical director of a chemical company, explained in an interview with The New American magazine:

"The detonation velocity of the shock wave from an ANFO (ammonium nitrate/fuel-oil) explosion is on the order of 3,500 meters per second. In comparison, military explosives generally have detonation velocities that hit 7,000 to 8,000-plus meters per second. The most energetic single-component explosive of this type, C-4 — which is also known as Cyclonite or RDX — is about 8,000 meters per second and above. You don't start doing big-time damage to heavy structures until you get into those ranges, which is why the military uses those explosives."^[7]

The government is not happy about people like Dr. Roger Raubach. They don't want you to know what Dr. Raubach knows. Sam Gronning, a licensed, professional blaster in Casper, Wyoming with 30 years experience in explosives, told The New American:

"The Partin letter states in very precise technical terms what everyone in this business knows: No truck-bomb of ANFO out in the open is going to cause the kind of damage we had there in Oklahoma City. In 30 years of blasting, using everything from 100 percent nitrogel to ANFO, I've not seen anything to support that story."^[8]

In an interview with the author, Gronning said, "I set off a 5,000 lb ANFO charge. I was standing 1,000 feet from it, and all it did was muss my hair, take out the mud in the creek that we were trying to get rid of, and it shattered a few leaves off the trees around it. It didn't cause any collateral damage to any of the deeply set trees that were within 20 feet of it."

The FBI has a different story to tell.

The FBI claims that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bought several thousand pounds of ammonium nitrate at a farm supply store in Manhattan, Kansas, then drove to Geary State Park where they mixed a bomb. The FBI claims that the suspects then hauled their magic bomb a distance of over 500 miles, where, nearly 24 hours later, they blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Yet what the FBI — those bastions of truth and justice — don't want you to know, is that fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate isn't a very good blasting agent. As a publication from the Atlas Powder company states:

…agricultural fertilizer prills when made into ANFO had very poor explosive characteristics. They would not detonate efficiently because of their high density, lack of porosity and heavy inert coatings of anti-setting agents.… The ability of an oiled prill to be detonated depends greatly upon the density of the prill. Dense prills, such as agricultural grade, often are not detonable at all; or if initiated, perform at a very low rate of detonation and may die out in the bore hole performing no useful work.^[9]

U.S. Army Technical Manual TM 9-1910 states it thusly:

The grade of ammonium nitrate used in the manufacture of binary explosives is required to be at least 99 percent pure, contain not more than 1.15 percent of moisture, and have maximum ether-soluble, water-insoluble acidity, sulfate, and chloride contents of 0.10, 0.18, 0.02, 0.05, and 0.50 percent, respectively.

Moreover, a bomb like that is not easy to mix. According to Gronning, "You'd have to stir and stir and stir to get just the right mixture for proper combustibility. And then, if it isn't used immediately, the oil settles to the bottom and the bomb doesn't go off."

"ANFO is easy to make if you know how to do it," adds Jeffrey Dean, Executive Director of the International Society of Explosives Engineers, "but it takes years of experience to work with safely." According to Dean, "It is almost impossible for amateurs to properly mix the ammonium nitrate with the fuel oil. Clumps of ANFO would inevitably fail to detonate."^[10]

The scenario of two men mixing huge barrels of fertilizer and fuel-oil in a public park also stretches the limits of credulity. Such a spectacle would surely have been seen by anyone passing by: hikers, picnickers, fishermen.

"That would have drawn so much attention," said Rick Sherrow, a former ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) agent with 25 years experience in explosives. "It would have required an area twice the size of a truck just to walk around… that would have not have gone okay."^[11]

Naturally, the expert who testified for the government disagrees. Linda Jones, an explosives specialist who has studied IRA bombings in Great Britain, "concluded that there was one device… in the rear cargo compartment of a Ryder truck…." Jones added that it wouldn't be difficult to build such a large bomb "provided they had a basic knowledge of explosives and access to the materials — it would be fairly simple. One person could do it on their own, but more people could do it quicker."^[12]

While the government built its case on witness accounts of the single Ryder truck, numerous witnesses, uncalled to testify by the prosecution for the McVeigh trial, recall seeing two trucks. Could two trucks — one rented by McVeigh, and one rented by the suspect known as John Doe 2 — have been used to transport the huge quantities of material necessary to build such a bomb?

"I would buy two trucks simply for logistics," said Sherrow. "One truck full of barrels of ammonium nitrate, and you still got to put the fuel into it. Because you don't want to put the fuel in and let it settle for days at a time. They would have to have something to bring everything together and mix it, and that's going to take more then one truck."

Two days prior to the Murrah Building bombing — on April 17th — David King, staying at the Dreamland Motel in Junction City, Kansas, where McVeigh and John Doe 2 spent time, remembered seeing the Ryder truck with a trailer attached to it. Inside the trailer was a large object wrapped in white canvas. "It was a squarish shape, and it came to a point on top," said King. "It was about three or four feet high." King said that later in the day, the trailer was gone, but the truck was still in the lot.^[13]

Was this witness describing some sophisticated explosive device? Or was he describing a Lely farm mixer? A Lely farm mixer is about four feet high with a pointed top. What happened to this trailer? Why did we never hear anymore about it?

Then around 2:00 a.m. on April 19, a Ryder truck pulled into the Save-A-Trip convenience store in Kingman, Kansas, followed by a light colored car and a brown pick-up. Assistant manager Richard Sinnett clearly recalls three men, including McVeigh and a man resembling John Doe 2 enter the store. Yet Sinnett was particularly struck by the odd contraption they were towing — a large plastic, semi-transparent tank full of clear liquid.^[14] Was this diesel fuel that the bombers intended to add to their ammonium nitrate mixture at the last minute?

Despite a mountain of evidence against the [government's] ANFO theory, the government has gone to great lengths to convince the jury and the public that the Murrah Building was destroyed by a single ANFO bomb delivered by a pair of disgruntled Right-wing extremists. In fact, the ATF televised a demonstration of an ANFO truck-bomb detonating in an effort to prove their contention. "They fired the thing off," said Gronning. "We saw it — it was on CNN — so what? All it did was set off an explosion and wiggle the trees behind it. It didn't even knock them over.

"My knowledge comes from practical handling of explosives," added Gronning. "And my belief is that 4800 lbs of ANFO wouldn't have scuffed the paint on the building!"

The FBI also changed the size of the bomb numerous times. They originally claimed that it weighed 1,200 pounds, upgraded that figure to 2,000 pounds, then to 4,000 pounds, and finally, they issued a press release stating that the bomb weighed 4800 pounds.

"It appears the government keeps up-grading the size of the vehicle and the 'fertilizer' bomb to coincide with the damage," said retired FBI SAC (Senior Agent-in-Charge) Ted Gunderson.

The government also originally claimed the bomb cost less than $1,000 to build. Then just before the start of McVeigh's trial, that figure was upgraded to $5,000. Their rationale was based on the "discovery," almost two years after the fact, that the suspects had constructed their magic bomb with racing fuel, not diesel fuel, which is far less expensive.

To maintain some semblance of credibility in light of increasingly publicized reports of General Partin and others, the government also conceded — right before the start of McVeigh's trial — that the suspects probably hadn't built their bomb at Geary State Park after all.^[15]

If Timothy McVeigh or anyone else with military training wanted to destroy the Alfred P. Murrah Building, it is highly unlikely they would use ANFO. As Army demolition manuals clearly state, ANFO is not good for destroying concrete or steel. McVeigh, the consummate soldier who studied every conceivable Army manual in his spare time — including Army Manual TM 31-210: Improvised Munitions Handbook — certainly would have known this.^[16]

Yet the FBI insists that amateur bomb-makers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols built this amazing ANFO bomb that killed 169 people and destroyed a modern nine-story steel-reinforced concrete building. Of course, that was before the government's damage-control apparatus went into effect. Before it did, even the usual government talking-heads were insisting that no amateurs could have done this.

Vince Cannistraro, ABC News corespondent and former CIA intelligence advisor to the National Security Council stated, "This is something professional and it really implies that the person who constructed the explosive device has experience, was trained in the use of explosives, and knew what they were doing."^[17]

Before he began attacking critics of the government's case, Oklahoma Governor and former FBI agent Frank Keating stated, "…obviously whatever did the damage to the Murrah Building was a tremendous, very sophisticated explosive device."^[18]

The very next day, the government was insisting that a homemade ANFO bomb, made with agricultural grade ammonium nitrate, did the job. FBI Special Agent John Hersley contends that traces of a military-type detonation cord known as PDTN (pentadirythri-tetranitrate), commonly known as Primadet, were found on McVeigh's clothing at the time of his arrest (In another report it was PETN, or pentaerythritol-tetranitrate). PDTN was allegedly used to wire the barrels of ANFO.^[19]

Senior FBI chemist Frederick Whitehurst conducted a test on McVeigh's clothing but found no residue there, or in McVeigh's car either.^[20]

Whitehurst came forward with allegations that the FBI has been slanting results of its forensic tests for years. Collected in a 30-page memorandum, Whitehurst criticized FBI laboratory personnel for incompetence. As a Justice Department memorandum states: "Dr. Whitehurst contends that the Explosives Unit and the Chemistry and Toxicology Unit inappropriately structure their conclusions to favor the prosecution."^[21]

According to the Wall Street Journal, "[Whitehurst's] accusations of bias and even manufacturing evidence have called into question several high-profile government cases, including the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings."^[22]

Whitehurst's allegations were further elaborated on in a highly revealing report issued by the DoJ Inspector General's Office, which concluded that "[SSA David] Williams repeatedly reached conclusions that incriminated the defendants without a scientific basis and that were not explained in the body of the report."

Indeed. It appears Williams reached his conclusions based, not on empirical evidence, but on the fact that Terry Nichols allegedly purchased large quantities of ANFO. As the OIG (Office of Inspector General) report states:

Without the evidence of these purchases, Williams admitted he would have been unable to conclude that ANFO was used. Indeed, Williams stated that based on the post-blast scene alone it could have been dynamite….

Williams claimed "that the initiator for the booster(s) was either a detonator from a Primadet Delay system or sensitized detonating cord." Yet as the OIG report states, "No evidence of a Primadet system or sensitized detonating cord was found at the crime scene."^[23]

Controversial scientist and bomb expert Michael Riconoscuito told former FBI agent Ted Gundersen that the theory of drums of ANFO being detonated by PDTN-soaked loops of rope or "det" cord is highly improbable, if not impossible. "The only way to obtain blast control is with volumetric initiation," explained Riconoscuito. "This takes electronic circuits of similar sophistication as would be required in nuclear weapons. This sophistication is not available to the average person," he added, stating that the resultant blast would have been "confused and uncontrolled," and the energy would have ultimately "canceled itself out."^[24]

Finally, the OIG report states: "Whitehurst questions Williams' conclusion that none of the structural damage evident within the Murrah building was caused by secondary explosive devices or explosions."^[25]

So why is the government going to such great lengths, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, to make us believe that the Alfred P. Murrah Building was destroyed by an ANFO bomb? Because the government's case is built upon the premise that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols built their alleged bomb with ammonium nitrate. The calls allegedly made by McVeigh were to stores that sell racing fuel and ammonium nitrate. McVeigh's fingerprint is allegedly on a receipt for ammonium nitrate. And a small trace of ammonium nitrate was allegedly found at the scene. The government's case must proceed along those lines. Any evidence that proves the bomb was made of anything other than ANFO would not only destroy the government's case, it would open up inquiries about who really bombed the Murrah Building… and why.^[26]

The government [also had to stick] with the ANFO theory is because Michael and Lori Fortier agreed to testify in a plea-bargain that their friend McVeigh arranged soup cans in their kitchen to demonstrate how to make a "shaped charge." Yet as bomb experts explained, there is no way to make a shaped charge out of a collection of ANFO barrels.

But the [government doesn't want any serious inquiries as to who really blew up the Murrah Building. The] government expects us to believe that two lone amateurs with a crude fertilizer bomb, out in the open, twenty to thirty feet away from a hardened target, destroyed eight reinforced columns and killed 169 people. As General Partin said, such a scenario is "beyond credulity."^[27]

Former ATF [agent] Rick Sherrow, who wrote an article for Soldier of Fortune magazine entitled "Bombast, Bomb Blasts & Baloney," contends that General Partin's assessment of the bombing is somehow inaccurate. Sherrow claims that the pressure wave that would have struck the building from the [rapidly deteriorating] blast of the ANFO bomb (375 p.s.i. according to Partin's figures) would be more than enough to destroy reinforced concrete columns, which Sherrow claimed in his article disintegrate at 30 p.s.i. (pounds per square inch).^[28]

To Sam Gronning, such a statement is preposterous: "That's bullshit!" exclaimed Gronning. "Thirty p.s.i. wouldn't take out a rubber tire!" Both Partin and Rabauch contend that at least 3,500 p.s.i. is required to destroy reinforced concrete. In a letter to Partin, Rabauch states:

I took the liberty of checking with the leading concrete supplier in my area in order to confirm the compressive yield figure that you used, that being 3,500 p.s.i. What I was told about concrete was very interesting. A 3,500 p.s.i. figure is extremely low for structural concrete. A properly mixed and cured structure of the type dealt with in your report would probably have a yield strength of 5,600 p.s.i.^[29]

Those who rush to refute the evidence presented by Partin, Raubach and others, cite as evidence the 1982 destruction of the Marine bunker in Beirut by a truck-bomb driven by an Islamic terrorist. In that instance, however, the truck was driven directly into the building — a structure much smaller and lighter than the Alfred P. Murrah Building.

In August of 1970, 1,700 pounds of ANFO parked in a van exploded outside the Army Math Research Lab at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Although parked closer than the Ryder truck was to the Murrah Building, the bomb merely blew a hole in the outer wall and took out the windows. One person was killed. (See photo)

In 1989, Colombian narco-terrorists detonated a truck-bomb outside the National Security Department in Bogota, Columbia. The vehicle was parked approximately ten feet from the modern high-rise building. The bomb decimated the face of the building, but left the support columns intact. Fifteen people were killed.

In the summer of 1996, an IRA truck-bomb detonated in the heart of Manchester's financial district. The device, constructed of ANFO and 3,500 pounds of Semtex, a high-velocity, military-grade plastic explosive, caused considerable damage to the surrounding buildings, but left them relatively intact. Although the device managed to break a lot of windows and injure 206 people, no one was killed.

On June 25, 1996, a tanker-trailer packed with RDX plastic explosives blew up outside the Khobar Towers apartment complex at King Abdul Aziz Air Base in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American servicemen and injuring hundreds more. While the blast produced a crater 35 feet deep and 85 feet across (the crater in Oklahoma was approximately 6 feet deep and 16 feet across, although the government claimed it was 30 feet), it didn't do the same amount of damage done to the Murrah Building — a building constructed to much more rigorous codes and specifications. Yet authorities claim that the bomb was at least the size as that which blew up the Federal Building.^[30] [See photo]

In an analogy offered by Partin, "It would be as irrational or as impossible as a situation in which a 150 pound man sits in a flimsy chair causing the chair to collapse, while a man weighing 1,500 pounds sits in an identical flimsy chair and it does not collapse — impossible."

"But," contends Sherrow in Soldier of Fortune, "the [Murrah] Building was not designed to withstand explosions or earthquakes, and it's basically a weak building."

Jim Loftis, one of the building's architects, told me they were asked to make the building bomb-resistant, due to left-wing radicals who were blowing up federal facilities in the early 1970s. Loftis also said the building was designed to meet earthquake standards. "We designed it to meet the building codes and earthquakes are part of that code," said Loftis.

Loftis also said that the north side of the lower level (the area impacted by the truck-bomb) was steel-rebar reinforced concrete without windows. He also concurred with Raubach and Partin that the pressure necessary to destroy reinforced concrete is in the 2,500 to 4,000 p.s.i. range — a far cry from the 30 p.s.i. cited by Sherrow.^[31]

Yet Sherrow concludes that since there was so much collateral damage (damage to the surrounding buildings) the truck-bomb must have been responsible. "The collateral damage just discounts [Partin's] material," says Sherrow.

Two experts who seem to agree with Sherrow are Dorom Bergerbest-Eilom and Yakov Yerushalmi. The Israeli bomb experts were brought to Oklahoma at the request of ATF agent Guy Hamal. According to their report, the bomb was an ANFO bomb boosted with something more powerful… and it had a Middle Eastern signature.^[32]

The Athenian restaurant, which sits approximately 150 feet northwest of the Murrah Building, was almost completely destroyed. Pieces of the Murrah Building were actually blown into the Athenian. As video producer Jerry Longspaugh points out, only a bomb inside the Federal Building would be capable of projecting parts of the building into another building 150 feet away.

As Gronning notes in a letter to Representative Key: "Not in your wildest dreams would that much ANFO affect peripheral damage at that distance. Which leads me to suspect that another more powerful explosive was used."

According to a source quoted in the Rocky Mountain News, an ammonium nitrate bomb made with a racing fuel component known as hydrazine "would create one of the largest non-nuclear blasts possible." McVeigh had allegedly attempted to procure the substance from a dealer in Topeka, Kansas, who refused. In fact, hydrazine is extremely hazardous and difficult to obtain.^[33]

While not knowledgeable about hydrazine, Gronning noted that "C-4, for example, would be capable of creating those kinds of pressure waves and destroying the local foundation of the Federal Building.

"If you had 4,000 lbs of C-4 in there," Gronning said, "now you're talking a real high-order explosive at some serious speed. And when that goes off, you're liable to take out the thing. But I still have a problem believing even at that distance away from the building, it would create that kind of damage. All you have to do to see what I'm talking about is to see what kind of bomb damage you get from a bomb in the [WWII] attacks on London."^[34]

It is precisely this analogy that Sherrow attempts to use in Soldier of Fortune. "For perspective, notes SOF 'demo' expert Donovan, "consider that the German V-1 and V-2 missiles that devastated London carried only 1,650 pounds of an explosive not dissimilar in brisance and yield. In other words, would three V-2s simultaneously striking the first floor of the Murrah Building do such damage? Of course they would."

Yet the Ryder truck did not impact the Murrah Building at the speed of a rocket, nor did it impact it at all. Even to the layperson, one can see that such an analogy is ridiculous. In his article, Sherrow never speculates that C-4 or any other high-velocity military type explosive might have been used.

Still, the former ATF man contends that an ANFO bomb parked out in the open could have caused the pattern and degree of damage done to the Murrah Building. "Absolutely and without a shadow of a doubt, and I base that on 30 years in the business, and shooting ANFO — from a couple pounds to 630 tons in one shot." Sherrow goes on to state that Partin's conclusions were based upon mere "theoretical analysis," not hands-on experience.

Yet Partin spent 25 years in the defense research establishment, including hands-on work at the Ballistic Research Laboratories; Commander of the Air Force Armament Technology Laboratory; Air Force System Command, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) management. Such credentials speak of a man who knows his explosives.

It is unclear why the former ATF man was trying to discredit Partin, and by association, others who disagreed with the government's theory. What is clear however is that Soldier of Fortune, the magazine in which Sherrow's article appeared, is owned by Paladin Press, regarded a CIA proprietary. Robert K. Brown, the magazine's publisher, is an associate of General John Singlaub, a key Iran-Contra player who ran the genocidal Phoenix Program in Vietnam, and helped train death squads in Central America. Both men reportedly played an ancillary role in the 1984 La Penca bombing, which resulted in the deaths of eight journalists. [See Chapter 14] Sherrow admitted to working for the CIA in Africa. What he did there wasn't exactly clear.^[35]

If the CIA (or one of its tentacles) were involved, as they invariably tend to be in such cases, they would have a strong motive to cover up their involvement and re-direct the investigation. The most common way of doing this is through the use of propaganda and disinformation. While Sherrow himself has criticized the ATF, and wrote several articles debunking the government's theory regarding militia groups, this particular article appeared to be a "hit-piece" designed to discredit any legitimate analysis of the bombing.

Yet some critics of the government's story have gone beyond the relatively ordinary explanations of Partin, Gronning and others to suggest that the Federal Building was destroyed by a device called an "A-Neutronic Bomb." These advocates cite as evidence the nature of the spalling (the disintegration of the concrete into tiny pieces) on the top of the building, and the extent of the damage to surrounding buildings that even men like General Partin claim would be impossible for an ANFO bomb.

Larens Imanyuel, a Berkeley assistant physics professor who has studied the bombing, is one such advocate. Imanyuel's analysis, which appeared in Veritas newsletter, indicates that the wide extent of the collateral damage was not consistent with a conventional explosion. As Imanyuel writes:

There was some very sophisticated bomb that was capable of causing a tremendous blast atmospheric pressure wave that blew out windows in so many of the surrounding buildings. This had to be some sort of very high-tech dust explosive-like bomb — one that creates a widely dispersed explosive mixture in the very air and then detonates it with a secondary charge. This last spectacular high-tech bomb served the purpose of convincing the general public that the alleged solitary truck-bomb was powerful and "devastating" enough that it could wipe out and collapse a nearby building.^[36]

Consider the comments of a local structural engineer, Bob Cornforth, "The range of this blast has really impressed me — the extent of the damage and the distance out." A mile away, window frames had been pushed back two feet. On the other hand, he inspected two buildings just a little over 200 ft. from the so-called crater, the YMCA center and the Journal Record building, which lost part of its pitched concrete roof. To his surprise, "The structural frames performed extremely well. We design for 80-mph winds," which he says seems adequate. The lack of damage to the frames, despite the massive light-structural damage showed that the shock waves were of short duration. This was consistent with a many-point explosion, but not with a single-point explosion large enough to knock out the four heavy columns that had collapsed in the Murrah Building.^[37]

The A-Neutronic bomb, or "Electro-Hydrodynamic Gaseous Fuel Device," was reportedly developed by the young scientist-prodigy in the early 1980s while he was working for Hercules Manufacturing in Silicon Valley, CA. The first bomb test at the Pentagon's super-secret Area 51 in Nevada apparently resulted in the death of a technician and injured several others due to their underestimation of its power. The project was reportedly compartmentalized and classified under a "Nuclear Weapons" category by President Reagan. [For a description of the device, see Appendix]

[What does Samuel Cohen have to say about the A-Neutronic bomb? "Well, I'm not expert enough to really vouch for his statements, but I've got a hunch that it's technically well-based. I've spoken to Michael Riconosciuto (the inventor of the A-Neutronic Bomb) and he's an extraordinarily bright guy. I also have a hunch, which I can't prove, that they both (Riconosciuto and Lavos, his partner) indirectly work for the CIA."]

According to Imanyuel, a member of a public watch-dog group that monitors military and nuclear procurement activities, "The design would be particularly suitable for use as a cruise missile warhead, where a non-nuclear charge is required that can reliably destroy a hardened target despite a several-meters targeting error. Such weapons are designed as part of the Advanced Technology Warhead Program of Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories."

Ted Gundersen, who has independently investigated the bombing, included numerous letters and memos in his report which pointed to the existence of such a device. He reported that the government contract number for the bomb was DAAA-21-90-C-0045, and was manufactured by Dyno-Nobel, Inc., in Salt Lake City. Dyno-Nobel was previously connected with Hercules Manufacturing, where Riconosciuto worked. The Department of the Army denies that contract DAAA-21-90-C-0045 exists. Dyno-Nobel refused to respond to inquiries from Gundersen or the author.^[38]

Curiously, the bomb specialist the government called as its expert witness during the Federal Grand Jury testimony was Robert Hopler. Hopler recently retired from Dyno-Nobel.

Sherrow raised the issue of the Electro-Hydrodynamic Gaseous Fuel Device in his Soldier of Fortune article. According to Imanyuel, "Gundersen's bomb model was clearly unworkable as presented in Soldier of Fortune, but contained the essential information that the bomb generated an electrostatically charged cloud."^[39]

One victim in the HUD office in the Murrah Building described in a National Public Radio interview on May 23, 1995 how she felt a heat wave and a static electricity charge immediately before the windows blew in.

Daina Bradley, who lost her mother and two children in the bombing, said she felt electricity running through her body right before the bomb went off.^[40]

Another victim, Ramona McDonald, who was driving about block away, remembers seeing a brilliant flash and described the feeling of static electricity. "It made a real loud static electricity sound. It sounded like big swarm of bees — you could actually hear it. The next thing was a real sharp clap, like thunder.…" McDonald also described both gold and blue flashes of light. Interestingly, Riconiscuto has called his device "Blue Death."^[41]

Another survivor of the blast was quoted on CNN as saying, "It was just like an atomic bomb went off. "The ceiling went in and all the windows came in and there was a deafening roar…"^[42]

Proponents of the A-Neutronic Bomb conclude that these are all signatures of such a device.^[43]

While both Gundersen and Riconosciuto have received ridicule for suggesting that a super-secret pineapple-sized device may have destroyed the Murrah Building, Cohen cautions: "Look, when I first came up with that concept (the Neutron Bomb, developed in the 1970s), the ridicule I took from the scientific community was something awful. And this included scientists at the Nobel Prize level." "Regarding Riconosciuto," adds Cohen, "the guy's a madman… but technically, there's no doubt in my mind that he's brilliant."^[44]

Gene Wheaton, a former Pentagon CID investigator, claims that the fuel-air bomb was deployed in the Gulf War, along with other experimental weapons responsible for much of the massive devastation inflicted on Iraq.^[45] The fuel-air explosive, or FAE, can cover an area 1,000 feet wide with blast pressures of 200 p.s.i. According to a CIA report on FAEs:

[T]he pressure effects of FAEs approach those produced by low-yield nuclear weapons at short ranges. The effect of an FAE explosion within confined spaces is immense. Those near the ignition point are obliterated. Those at the fringes are likely to suffer many internal… injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner-ear organs, severe concussions, ruptured lungs and internal organs, and possible blindness.^[46]

Moreover, it seems that Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm supplied Iraq with plans for a fuel-air explosive. The blueprints were allegedly passed on to the Iraqis by the Egyptians, and Iraq commenced commercial production of the weapon — the force of which is the equivalent of a small atomic explosion.^[47]

A few minutes before 9:00 a.m. on April 19, a young Arabic man carrying a backpack was seen in the Murrah Building hurriedly pushing the elevator button as if trying to get off. A few minutes after he exited the building, the bomb(s) went off. The elevator doors, which were on the opposite side of the building from the truck-bomb, had their doors blown outward.

Another former military source agreed that a device similar to the fuel-air explosive exists. "It's called a Special Atomic Demolition Munitions or SADM," said Craig Roberts, a Lt. Colonel in Army Reserve [Intelligence]. According to Roberts and Charles T. Harrison, a researcher for the Department of Energy and the Pentagon, this munition has been deployed with artillery units in Europe. The SADM can also be carried in a backpack.

Another source who has monitored top-secret weapons projects confirmed this information:

I do not know a lot about SADM's, but I have friends — ex British SAS and RAF — who were trained in their use a few years ago for behind-the-lines sabotage in the event of a Russian breakthrough in Europe. They believe from their still-serving military contacts that the earlier football sized back pack weapons that they were trained on have been significantly microed such that a device would now easily fit in a grapefruit and deliver five to ten tons TNT equivalent — or less [i.e: down to one ton TNT]. These things easily fit into a 105mm howitzer shell or a briefcase. ...

Exactly what components are utilized in these weapons is difficult to get as the still serving British officers are reluctant to talk about them in detail. One can assume that a mixture of Plutonium 239 (highly refined hence relatively low radioactivity emission on detonation), Lithium 6 Deuteride Tritide, Tritium, and possibly Beryllium and Uranium 238 (NOT 235) would be involved as a series of lenses in a Bi-Conical shape. I am endeavoring to get more data but this a very touchy area…^[48]

An article in the The Nashville Tennessean insists Iraq's Saddam Hussein has been developing 220 pounds of lithium 6 per year. lithium 6 can be converted to tritium, an essential ingredient in thermonuclear reactions.^[49]

Other sources say that 6,000 to 7,000 SADM's were produced, some of which made their way to Israel and other countries.^[50] Sam Cohen confirms this information in the Fall issue of Journal of Civil Defense. Cohen, echoing Harrison, charges that the U.S. has purposefully underestimated the number of nuclear warheads that Iran, Iraq and North Korea could produce, and deliberately discounted their capacity to produce substantially smaller warheads.

"A couple of years ago," states Cohen, "disturbing statements on advanced small, very low-yield nuclear warheads, began emanating from Russia.^[51] Cohen adds that these articles "revealed a massive smuggling ring had emerged where the material was being sold around the world to a number of countries, some of which were terrorist nations."^[52]

[Writing in Nexus Magazine, Australian journalist and military authority Joe Vialls points out that the bombing which destroyed a financial center in London in July of 1993, and which almost destroyed the World Trade Center in New York four months later, could not have been caused by conventional explosives. In a bizarre coincidence predating Cohen's analysis, theoretical physicist and former Pentagon nuclear expert Theodore B. Taylor stated in his book, The Curve of Binding Energy, that someday someone was going to blow up the World Trade Center with a nuclear device the size of a stick of gum. Taylor's prediction first appeared in the New Yorker magazine in 1973.^[53]

Vialls adds that the British government was quick to blame the London attack on an IRA (Irish Republican Army) truck-bomb, in the same manner that U.S. authorities were quick to blame the Oklahoma bombing on a truck-bomb constructed by a pair of so-called disgruntled anti-government loners. Yet at the same time the British government was issuing these statements, their bomb technicians were exploring the bomb site in full nuclear protective suits.]

Had the Murrah Building been destroyed by a SADM or a backpack nuke, using the truck-bomb as a cover? British bomb experts, with extensive experience dealing with terrorist truck-bombs, told McVeigh's attorney, Stephen Jones, that the ANFO bomb could not have done all of the damage to the Murrah Building.^[54]

British bomb expert Linda Jones, testifying for the prosecution in McVeigh's trial, came to the opposite conclusion however. Nevertheless, the site was quickly demolished and covered over with concrete; the remains taken to a secure dump and buried. What was the government trying to hide? Nuclear Physicist Galen Winsor, General Ben Partin, and KPOC manager David Hall went to the building and disposal sites with radiation measuring equipment, but were kept away. They managed to gather some fragments anyway, and when they measured them with Winsor's NaI Scintillator detector, they registered radiation levels 50 percent higher than normal.^[55]

[The specter of radioactive terrorism is not exactly brand new. In Paris, the French secret police foiled terrorists planning to set off a conventional bomb designed to spread particles of deadly radioactive plutonium in the air.

Cohen suggests that if it had been a radioactive attack, and it were made public, it would have panicked a public already frightened about terrorist attacks: "If the perpetrators had been able to get their hands on just a traceable amount of radioactivity, and mixed it up with the explosive, so that it would virtually assure that it would be picked up by some detecting meter, and this had gotten out, that there was a fairly copious amount of radioactivity in the explosive, all hell would have broken loose…. It would scare the pants off a very large fraction of the U.S. citizenry, by saying this was used by terrorists, and contaminated an area…"^[56]

Given the government's long history of covering up radiation tests on U.S. citizens, from radiating entire towns downwind of nuclear test sites, to slipping radioactive isotopes to crippled children in their oatmeal, it goes without saying that they would also cover this up.]

"A new class of nuclear weapons could exist which could have an extremely disturbing terrorist potential," said Cohen. "And to admit to the possibility that the warheads might be sufficiently compact to pose a real terrorist threat was equally unacceptable [to the government]."^[57]

So was the Federal Building blown up by demolition charges, a truck filled with C-4, a fuel-air explosive, a miniature nuke, or some combination of the above?

["It really doesn't make any difference," says Cohen. "From the standpoint of practicality… I would lean towards Ben Partin. Because all the stuff Partin's put out, it just holds up — it makes eminent sense — he doesn't have to get into this exotica. Partin says using ordinary Primacord wrapped around these pillars could have done the job."^[58]

In fact, it does make quite a bit of difference from an investigative point of view, since the more sophisticated the bomb, the more sophisticated the bombers. And Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols weren't that sophisticated.]

KFOR-Channel 4 reported that the mysterious severed leg clothed in military garb found in the rubble allegedly had PVC embedded [in] it. PVC pipe is sometimes used to pack plastic explosives. It increases the shear power. Had this leg, unmatched to any of the known victims, belonged to the real bomber?^[59]

[In fact, it does make quite a bit of difference from an investigative point of view, since the more sophisticated the bomb, the more sophisticated the bombers. And Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols weren't that sophisticated.]

Then on March 20, 1996,Strategic Investment Newsletter reported that a Pentagon study had been leaked which backed up General Partin's analysis:

A classified report prepared by two independent Pentagon experts has concluded that the destruction of the federal building in Oklahoma City last April was caused by five separate bombs. The two experts reached the same conclusion for the same technical reasons. Sources close to the Pentagon study say Timothy McVeigh did play a role in the bombing but peripherally, as a "useful idiot." The multiple bombings have a Middle Eastern "signature," pointing to either Iraqi or Syrian involvement.^[60]

Finally, in the Spring of 1997, explosives experts at Eglin Air Force Base's Wright Laboratory Armament Directorate released a study on the effects of explosives against a reinforced concrete building similar to the Federal Building. The Air Force's test closely matched the conditions under which the government contends the Murrah Building was destroyed.

The Eglin Blast Effects Study, or EBES, involved a three-story reinforced concrete structure 80 long, 40 feet wide, and 30 feet high. The building constructed for the test, the Eglin Test Structure (ETS), while smaller than the Murrah Building, was similar in design, with three rows of columns, and six-inch-thick concrete panels similar to those in the Murrah Building. Overall, the ETS was considerably weaker than the Murrah, which had five times the amount of steel reinforcing than the ETS, and 10 times the amount of steel in its columns and beams. As New American editor William Jasper noted in regards to the EBES:

If air blast could not effect catastrophic failure to the decidedly inferior Eglin structure, it becomes all the more difficult to believe that it was responsible for the destruction of the much stronger Murrah Building.

The experts at Eglin conducted three tests. They first detonated 704 pounds of Tritonal (equivalent to 830 pounds of TNT or approximately 2,200 pounds of ANFO), at a distance of 40 feet from the structure, equivalent to the distance the Ryder truck was parked from the Murrah Building. The second test utilized an Mk-82 warhead (equivalent to 180 pounds of TNT) placed within the first floor corner room approximately four feet from the exterior wall. The third test involved a 250-pound penetrating warhead (equivalent to 35 pounds TNT), placed in the corner of a second floor room approximately two and a half feet from the adjoining walls.

The first detonation demolished the six-inch-thick concrete wall panels on the first floor, but left the reinforcing steel bars intact. The 14-inch columns were unaffected by the blast — a far cry from what occurred at the Murrah Building. The damages to the second and third floors fell off proportionally, unlike that in Oklahoma City. The 56-page report concluded:

Due to these conditions, it is impossible to ascribe the damage that occurred on April 19, 1995 to a single truck-bomb containing 4,800 lbs. of ANFO. In fact, the maximum predicted damage to the floor panels of the Murrah Federal Building is equal to approximately 1% of the total floor area of the building. Furthermore, due to the lack of symmetrical damage pattern at the Murrah Building, it would be inconsistent with the results of the ETS test [number] one to state that all of the damage to the Murrah Building is the result of the truck-bomb. The damage to the Murrah Federal Building is consistent with damage resulting from mechanically coupled devices placed locally within the structure ....

It must be concluded that the damage at the Murrah Federal Building is not the result of the truck-bomb itself, but rather due to other factors such as locally placed charges within the building itself .... The procedures used to cause the damage to the Murrah Building are therefore more involved and complex than simply parking a truck and leaving ....^[61]

Even the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was forced to conclude that 4,800 pounds of ANFO could have not caused the so-called crater in Oklahoma City. FEMA's report, published on August 30, 1996, inadvertently concluded that the bombers would have had to use approximately three times the amount reportedly used in Oklahoma City.^[62]

Another interesting confirmation came from FBI agent Danny Defenbaugh, who, along with U.S. Attorney Beth Wilkerson, visited General Partin in June of 1995. Part of the team that prosecuted McVeigh and Nichols, Wilkerson interviewed Partin on the presumption that he would be called as a witness. "…and [Agent Defenbaugh] was going through the report that I did," said Partin, "and he put his finger on that picture I had in the report… the designated crater, and he said, 'Suppose I told you that is not the crater?'"

Partin believes Wilkerson and Defenbaugh (who Partin described as belligerent) interviewed him as part of a ruse to find out what he knew about the blast(s), so the government could carefully avoid those issues at trial. While they pretended to be interested in Partin's analysis, they never kept their word to follow up the interview.

"I think what they did," said Partin, "was they looked at my credentials and technical justification of all this stuff, and they felt found that what I had was based on some pretty sound footing.… I think that's why they framed the case the way they did."^[63]

Whatever blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Building, one thing's for sure, there was enough ANFO present at the site to leave visible traces. Randy Ledger, a maintenance man who was in the building at the time of the blast, claims fellow workers who rushed into the building immediately after the explosion "complained of burning eyes, heavy dust and choking lungs. That is right out of the textbook of a diesel-fertilizer bomb, because it creates nitric acid," said Ledger. "The guys I work with, they're not going to make it up that their eyes are burning."^[64]

Dr. Paul Heath, a VA psychologist who was on the fifth floor of the building at the time of the blast, said, "I picked fertilizer out of my skin… I could see the fertilizer actually exploding in the air; you could see it popping all around you."

Ramona McDonald, who also survived the blast, concurs with Heath. "There was a bright flash, and then boom! And you could see the fertilizer popping in the air."

Given this scenario, it's reasonable to conclude that the Ryder truck was filled with something more powerful, with just enough ANFO to leave a visible trace.

Cohen agrees. "The damage that resulted could not have occurred from a van parked outside… I don't care how fancy an explosive was used. What did in that building… was an inside job."

It would appear that experts' analysis' are not the only evidence of an inside job. In an interview with a local TV station, a man who escaped the building said, "I was sitting at my desk, and I felt a rumbling, a shaking in the building… so I decided to get under my desk.… the glass windows blew in and knocked down the ceiling and some of the stuff above the ceiling and it all landed on top of my desk."

Another man said, "I thought it was an earthquake because I resided in California for many years, and it was almost like it was in slow motion. I felt a shake, and then it began shaking more, and I dove under my desk, and then the glass all came flying in."

A friend of Dr. Ray Brown's, who's secretary was in the building said, "She was standing by a window. The window cracked, then she got away from it and then she was blown across the room and landed in another woman's lap. Another woman I know, Judy Morse, got under her desk after feeling the building shake, and before the glass flew."

"Dr. Brian Espe, who was the sole survivor in the Department of Agriculture's fifth floor office, told the author he first "heard a rumbling noise."

According to these individuals' accounts, if the truck-bomb — the alleged sole bomb — had detonated first, how would they have felt a rumbing, had time to think about the situation, then dive under their desks? The resulting blast wave from the truck-bomb would have been immediate and total. Such an account could only be indicative of demolition charges placed inside the building.^[65]*

"The inside charges — demolition charges," said Cohen, "may have gone off first, and so the columns now started to collapse. Boy, that would produce one hell of a rumble, to put it mildly…."^[66]

A caller to the Oklahoma Radio Network related the experiences of his friend, a Federal Government worker, who had witnessed the blast first-hand. "He was approximately five blocks from the building whenever the building went up. He claims that the top of the building went up like a missile going through it. The debris was coming back down when the side of the building blew out. He said third and last, the truck blew up on the street."^[67]

Notice this witness said the building "blew out." This is contrary to the effect of an explosive blast from the street blowing the building in from the street. Candy Avey, who was on her way to the Social Security office when the explosions occurred, was blown away from the building, struck a parking meter, and then hit her car.^[68] Said Suzanne Steely, reporting live for KFOR, "We could see all the way through the building. That was just the force of the explosion — it just blew out all the walls and everything inside."^[69] Ramona McDonald saw a flash and smoke rising up from inside the building, "like a rocket had shot out the top of the building."^[70]

It should be obvious to the reader that it's implausible an ANFO bomb parked out in the street would have the force to blow all the way through a huge superstructure like the Alfred P. Murrah Building.

No matter how hard the government tried to lie, obsfucate, and distort the truth, the evidence would come back to haunt them.

On April 19, a tape recording made during a conference at the Water Resources Board directly across from the Murrah Building appears to indicate a succession of blast events, spaced very close together.^[71]

The tape recorder at the Water Resources Board was not the only instrument recording explosions that morning. The seismograph at the Oklahoma Geological Survey at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, 16 miles from the Murrah Building, recorded two waves, or "two events," on the morning of April 19th. Another seismograph at the Omniplex Museum, four miles away from the Federal Building, also recorded two events. These seismic waves, or "spikes," spaced approximately ten seconds apart, seem to indicate two blasts. [See Appendix]

Professor Raymond Brown, senior geophysicist at the University of Oklahoma who studied the seismograms, knew and talked to people inside the building at the time of the blast. "My first impression was, this was a demolition job," said Brown. "Somebody who went in there with equipment tried to take that building down."

Not so, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's analysis. The USGS put out a press release on June 1st, entitled "Seismic Records Support One-Blast Theory in Oklahoma City Bombing."

The bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City produced a train of conventional seismic waves, according to interpretations by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS).

Scientists from those agencies said the seismic recordings of the May 23 demolition of the building reproduced the character of the original, April 19th seismic recording by producing two trains of seismic waves that were recorded on seismometers near Norman, Okla.

"Seismic recordings from the building's implosion indicate that there was only one bomb explosion on April 19," said Dr. Thomas Holzer, a USGS geologist in Menlo Park, Calif. Holzer is one of several USGS and OGS scientists who analyzed the shock waves created by the April 19 explosion and the May 23 implosion.^[72]

Holzer added that the two distinct waves from the April 19 explosion(s) were the result of the same wave traveling at two different speeds through two separate layers of the earth's crust. The "illusion" of a double explosion was simply the result of the building's collapse, he claimed. "So the bottom line then," said Holzer, "is I think these observations are totally consistent with a single explosion. It doesn't require multiple explosions to do it."^[73]

Dr. Brown has an honest difference of opinion with folks at the U.S. Geological Survey. "I will candidly say that we are having trouble finding that velocity difference," said Brown. "We have not identified a pair of layers that could account for the ten-second difference.

"Whatever the USGS saw in that data convinced them that the original blast was one bomb," he added. "I find that hard to believe…. What was uncomfortable and might be construed as pressure is that they were going to come out with a press release that says we have concluded that data indicates one bomb. It puts us in the uncomfortable stance of saying that we, too, have concluded that, and we haven't."

Yet the USGS press release said that Dr. Charles Mankin of the OGS, Brown's boss, was "pleased with the work performed by Dr. Holzer and his USGS colleagues in the analysis of the seismic records." Yet Mankin had actually urged Holzer to delay the press release. "Everybody that has looked at the signal has said a refraction (an echo) would really be strange because there's absolutely no loss of energy in the recorded seismic signal. The second event has the same amplitude as the first… The arrival time is wrong for a refracted wave… We've ruled out reflections, refractions, and the air blast… We determined that these two records of these two events corroborate our interpretation that there were two explosions."^[74]

The mainstream media, of course, jumped on the USGS's findings, with headlines like "Single Bomb Destroyed Building" and "Seismic Records Shake Murrah Multiple Bomb Theory." "The news media even reported two bomb blasts initially," said Mankin, "but later changed their story."

"The USGS's conclusions are not supported by either data or analysis," added Brown, who asked that his name be taken off the report. Although Brown cautions that his own conclusions are far from conclusive and require "more thorough investigation," the most logical explanation for the second event says Brown, is "a bomb on the inside of the building."

"Even the smallest of those detonations (from the May 23rd demolition) had a larger effect on the recording than the collapse of the building," he added, "which demonstrates that the explosives are much more efficient at exciting the ground motion than is the collapse of three-fourths of the building. So it is very unlikely that one-fourth of the building falling on April 19th could have created an energy wave similar to that caused by the large [truck-bomb] explosion."^[75]

One of the problems with the two event theory is that the spikes on the seismic readings were ten seconds apart. With that much difference, most everybody in the vicinity should have heard two separate blasts. But given the traumatic nature of being in the immediate vicinity of a bombing, would witnesses necessarily have heard two explosions? Although the sound of a truck-bomb would certainly have made a loud, roaring noise, complete with lots of smoke and flying debris, experts say that the "crack" of a C-4 cutting charge is "downright disappointing" to hear.

One man who works as a parking garage attendant one block north of the Murrah Building told The New American that he was test driving a new pickup truck near the building when the bomb went off. "It seemed like one, big, long explosion," he said, "but I can't say for sure. My ears were ringing and glass and rocks and concrete were falling all over and around me."^[76]

Dr. Paul Heath, who was on the fifth floor, says he heard only one blast. But fellow VA worker Jim Guthrie stated in an interview with the Washington Post:

"I felt a boom and was picked up off my feet and thrown under a water fountain." He heard a second explosion and covered his ears. Diane Dooley, who was at a third floor stairwell, also believes she heard a second explosion.^[77]

P. G. Wilson, who worked in the Murrah Building, told researcher Michele Moore, "A second explosion came after the first one and shards of glass began flying in the office."^[78]

Hassan Muhammad, who was driving for a delivery service that day, had his ears ruptured by the explosions. Muhammad told the author he clearly recalled hearing two distinct blasts. "…when I was crossing the street [at 10th and Robinson]… the first explosion went off, and it was a loud explosion. And my friend who was coming out of the warehouse asked me what was it, because we thought it was a drive-by shooting… and we got on the ground, and by the time we got on the ground, another one went off, and that's when all the windows came out." Muhammad recalls that it was about three to four seconds between blasts.^[79]

Jane C. Graham, a HUD worker injured in the bombing, also clearly felt two distinct blasts. As Graham stated in a videotaped deposition: "I want to specify that the first bomb — the first impact — the first effect, was a waving effect, that you got when the building was moving, you might have maybe felt a little waving, perhaps an earthquake movement, and that lasted for several seconds.

"About 6 or 7 seconds later, a bomb exploded. It was an entirely different sound and thrust. It was like it came up right from the center up. You could feel the building move a little.… But there were two distinct events that occurred. The second blast not only was very, very loud, it was also very powerful. And as I said, I just felt like it was coming straight on up from the center of the building — straight up."^[80]

Michael Hinton, who was on a bus near NW 5th and Robinson — one block away — also heard two explosions. "I had just sat down when I heard this violent type rumble under the bus," said Hinton. "It was a pushing type motion — it actually raised that bus up on its side. About six or seven seconds later another one which was more violent than the first picked the bus up again, and I thought that second time the bus was going to turn over." ^[81]

What Hinton is describing is consistent with a two-bomb scenario. The first, smaller explosion being the more subdued blast of the demolition charges. The second, larger explosion being the blast of the truck-bomb — the blast pressure wave of which almost tipped the bus over.

In an interview with Media Bypass magazine, attorney Charles Watts, who was in the Federal Courthouse across the street, described hearing, and feeling, two separate blasts:

Watts: I was up on the ninth floor, the top floor of the Bankruptcy Court, with nothing in between the two buildings. We were on the south side, out in the foyer, outside the courtroom. It was nine o'clock, or just very, very shortly thereafter. Several lawyers were standing there talking and there was a large explosion. It threw several of the people close to me to the floor. I don't think it threw me to the floor, but it did move me significantly, and I threw myself to the floor, and got down, and about that time, a huge blast, unlike anything I've ever experienced, hit.

Media Bypass: The blast wave hit?

Watts: A second blast. There were two explosions. The second blast made me think that the whole building was coming in.

Watts, a Vietnam veteran, has experienced the effects of bombings, including being within 100 feet of B-52 air strikes. Watts told Media Bypass he never experienced anything like this before.^[82]

Another veteran who heard the blast is George Wallace, a retired Air Force fighter pilot with 26 years in the service. Wallace, who lives nine miles northwest of the Federal Building described the blast as a "sustained, loud, long rumble, like several explosions." Wallace likened the noise to that of a succession of bombs being dropped by B-52s.^[83]

Taken together, the evidence and witness accounts appears to indicate that there were at least two blasts on the morning of April 19.

General Partin, along with Senator Inhoffe, Representative Key and others, asked Congress that the building not be demolished until an independent forensic team could be brought in to investigate the damage.

"It is easy to determine whether a column was failed by contact demolition charges or by blast loading (such as a truck-bomb)," Partin wrote in his letter to Congress. "It is also easy to cover up crucial evidence as was apparently done in Waco. I understand that the building is to be demolished by May 23rd or 24th. Why the rush to destroy the evidence?"^[84]

Cohen echoed Partin's sentiments: "I believe that demolition charges in the building placed at certain key concrete columns did the primary damage to the Murrah Federal Building. I concur with the opinion that an investigation by the Oklahoma State Legislature is absolutely necessary to get at the truth of what actually caused the tragedy in Oklahoma City."

Yet the feds in fact did demolish the Murrah Building on May 23, destroying the evidence while citing the same reason as they did for quickly demolishing the Waco compound: "health hazards." In the Waco case, what was destroyed was evidence that the feds had fired from helicopters into the roof of the building during the early part of the raid, killing several people, including a nursing mother. In the Oklahoma case, what was destroyed was evidence that the columns had been destroyed by demolition charges.^[85]

The rubble from the Murrah Building was hauled by Midwest Wrecking to a landfill surrounded by a guarded, barbed-wire fence, sifted for evidence with the help of the National Guard, then subsequently hauled off BFI Waste Management and buried. Along with it was buried the evidence of what really happened on the morning of April 19.

"It's a classic cover-up," said General Partin, "a classic cover-up."

"Everything Short of a T-72 Tank"

If the bombing of the Murrah Building was the result of an inside job, who is responsible? Was it wired for demolition, and if so, who could have wired it?

Dr. Heath, who has worked in the Murrah Building for 22 years, was present on the day of the bombing. Although Heath personally discounts the second bomb theory, he explained that poor security in the building would have permitted access to almost anyone, anytime.

"The security was so lax in this building, that one individual or group of individuals could have had access to any of those columns," said Heath, "almost in every part of the building, before or after hours, or even during the hours of the workday, and could have planted bombs."

Guy Rubsamen, the Federal Protective Services guard on duty the night of the 18th, said that nobody had entered the building. Yet Rubsamen took off at 2:00 a.m., and said that nobody was guarding the building from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.^[86]

"It was a building you could have planted a bomb in anytime you wanted to," said Heath. "It was a building that was not secure at all. I've gone in and out of this building with a pen knife, just by slipping a knife in the south doors, slide the bolt back, and go in without a key. I've done that ever since the building was new. If you wanted into it, you could have gotten into it any time you wanted to."^[87]

Heath also explained that visitors could drive right into the garage, anytime. "There was no guard. You could drive inside the garage — four stories — anytime you wanted to, and carry anything you wanted to inside the car."^[88]

It appears that alleged bomber Timothy McVeigh (or someone driving his car) did just that. On the morning of April 19, attorney James Linehan was stopped for a light at the corner of NW 4th and Robinson at approximately 8:38 a.m. when he observed a battered yellow Mercury run the light and drive directly into the underground parking garage. Linehan said the driver had sharp facial features similar to McVeigh's, although he thought the driver may have been a woman.

Referring to the well-publized scene of McVeigh being led out of the Noble County Courthouse, Linehan said, "…that's it! That's the same profile." Curiously, one month later Linehan said, "My gut feeling is that it was a female driving."^[89]

Why did "McVeigh" drive into the garage? Could he have done so to plant additional bombs? Or perhaps someone in McVeigh's car made it appear that he was doing so? A fall-guy for the real bombers?

"If McVeigh was totally outside the law, he certainly wouldn't have snuggled up against them like driving into that basement that morning," said David Hall, general manager of KPOC-TV in Ponca City, Oklahoma, who has investigated the ATF's role in the bombing."

Yet Hall doesn't believe "the ATF or the FBI or anybody went around and wired columns or anything like that. What he (Partin) said was that there may have been some explosives stored by some columns that went off. I don't feel that those people set out to kill 168 people in Oklahoma City intentionally. But I think that because of incompetence on their part that very well may have happened in two or three different ways…"

Shortly after the bombing, an unidentified witness called Representative Key and told him that she saw two men in the garage who appeared to be "sawing" on the pillars. The men were working in almost total darkness. When she asked them what they were doing, they said, "We're just putting things right again."

Were they "putting things right," or were they weakening the support columns just enough to make sure that they'd fail at the appropriate moment?^[90]

Then, on the Friday before the bombing, HUD worker Jane Graham noticed three men in the garage whom she thought were telephone repairmen. As Graham stated in her deposition, the men were holding what appeared to be C-4 plastic explosives:

"It was a block, probably 2 by 3 inches of 3 by 4, in that area, but it was a putty color — solid piece of block — I don't know what it was. But they had that and they had this wiring. When they saw me watching them, they were down there and they had plans of the building. They were discussing — they were arguing in fact — apparently there was a disagreement, because one of the men was pointing to various areas of the garage. They were talking about, I assume, plans of the building. I thought maybe they were telephone men at first.

"When they saw me watching them, they took the wiring — it looked like cord, telephone cord — it was putty colored — they took whatever else was in their hand, they put all of that back into a paper sack, they put it in the driver's side, behind the passenger seat [of a] pale green, slightly faded station wagon."

Graham later told me that one of the men was holding a one by two by three inch device that looked like "some sort of clicker, like a small TV remote-control," she said.

The men stopped working abruptly when they saw Graham. "They looked uncomfortable," she said. "They were as intent looking at me as I was at them."

She also stated that the men were not wearing uniforms and were not driving a telephone or electric company truck. They were, however, very well built. They "obviously lifted weights" said Graham.

(Graham's account is backed up by IRS worker Kathy Wilburn, who also saw the trio of men in the garage, as did a HUD employee named Joan.)^[[91]]

Although the FBI interviewed Graham, they never showed her any pictures or brought her before a sketch artist. "They only wanted to know if I could identify McVeigh or Nichols," she said. "I said it was neither of these two gentlemen."^[92]

A call to the local electric, telephone, and natural gas companies revealed that the men were not authorized repairmen. Nor were they construction workers inspecting the premises for a proposed renovation project by the General Services Administration (GSA). The 20 or so contractors involved in that bid stated emphatically that the men were not their employees.^[93]

David Hall (who stopped working on the case in late 1995 due to an IRS audit) wasn't aware of the Graham deposition, he did drop a bombshell.

"We do know that explosives were delivered there without a doubt. We know there were six boxes of 25 to 35 pounds marked 'high explosives' delivered to the building two weeks prior to the explosion. We had contact with the truck driver who was involved in that delivery. The name of the trucking company is Tri-State, located in Joplin, Missouri."

Tri-state… is an explosives carrier.

"We've talked to the driver," said Hall. "We've talked to two drivers. Nobody knows what was in them because they were boxed and marked 'high explosive.'"

Then Hall dropped another bombshell.

"We also know that the ATF had a magazine inside the building, which was illegal. But the floor was blown out of that magazine. And there's some question about what was in there too that created that damage, because that was a foot of concrete that was blown out of that magazine."^[94]

While several other unexploded bombs were pulled out of the wreckage, none were widely mentioned.

One such bomb was a 2 X 2 foot box marked "High Explosives" which had a timer on it. This was confirmed by Oklahoma City Fire Marshal Dick Miller. The timing mechanism apparently had been set to detonate at ten minutes after nine. Apparently it had malfunctioned due to the initial blast.^[95]

According to Toni Garrett, a nurse who was on the scene tagging dead bodies. "Four people — rescue workers — told us there was a bomb in the building with a timing mechanism set to go off ten minutes after nine." According to Garrett, witnesses told her it was an active bomb. "We saw the bomb squad take it away."^[96]

This fact was confirmed by an Oklahoma City Police officer who inadvertently began to walk into the building when a fireman yelled, "Hey idiot, that's a bomb!" The stunned officer looked over and saw the 2 X 2 box surrounded by police crime tape. He then heard the fireman yell, "There's one over there and another over there! We're waiting for the bomb squads to come back from hauling off the others."

Investigator Phil O'Halloran has Bill Martin of the Oklahoma City Police Department on tape stating that one of the bombs found in the building was two to three five-gallon containers of Mercury Fulminate — a powerful explosive — one not easily obtainable except to military sources.^[97]

Citizens monitoring police radios heard the following conversation on the morning of the 19th:

First voice: "Boy, you're not gonna' believe this!"

Second voice: "Believe what?"

First voice: "I can't believe it… this is a military bomb!" ^[98]

Apparently, the containers, with "Milspec" (military specification) markings clearly visible, were found in the basement. Could this explain what McVeigh's car was doing in the underground parking garage? Mercury Fulminate is a highly volatile booster material. Volatile enough to create a very powerful explosion.^[99]

Shortly thereafter, a fireman up on the third floor of the building noticed two military ambulances pull up to the building, and saw several men in dark fatigues carrying stretchers from the building to the waiting ambulances. What were on the stretchers were not bodies, but boxes, which appeared to contain documents. One of the stretchers had on it what appeared to be a missile launch tube. The missile, apparently part of the Army recruiting office's display, was confirmed the 61st EOD to be inert.^[100][101]

What is also interesting is that General Partin stated the building's support structures failed primarily at the third floor level. In speculating who would have access at that juncture, it may be relevant to note that the Department of Defense (DoD) was on the third floor, adjoining column B-3, which Partin believes contained the main detonation charge.^[102]

Partin was also informed by an acquaintance in the CIA that several of their personnel who examined the site discovered Mercury Fulminate residue on several rooftops near the building. ^[103]

Around the same time as the Eglin Air Force Base report was being made public, William Northrop, a former Israeli intelligence agent, told me that a friend in the CIA's Directorate of Operations informed him that there was plastic explosive residue on the building's columns.

Adding more fuel to the theory of an inside job was the dismembered military leg found in the wreckage — a leg not belonging to any of the known victims. (Although authorities would later attempt to attribute the leg to Airman Lakesha Levy.)

Nor was the local media attributing the bombing to the work of amateurs. "Right now, they are saying that this is the work of a sophisticated group," stated a KFOR-TV newscaster. "This is the work of a sophisticated device, and it had to have been done by an explosives expert, obviously, with this type of explosion."^[104]

Even Governor Frank Keating told local news stations: "The reports I have is that one device was deactivated, and there's another device, and obviously whatever did the damage to the Murrah Building was a tremendous, very sophisticated explosive device."

Newscasters live on the scene could be heard throughout the day announcing, "We have reports of two other bombs pulled out of the building," and "The second two devices were larger than the first," and so on:

KFOR Channel 4: The FBI has confirmed there is another bomb in the Federal Building. It's in the East side of the building. They've moved everybody back several blocks, obviously to, uh, unplug it so it wont go off. They're moving everybody back. It's a… it's a weird scene because at first everybody was running when they gave the word to get everybody away from the scene, but now people are just standing around kind of staring. It's a very surreal, very strange scene.

Now, we want to get some information out to people, to people who are in the downtown area. You don't want to stand on the sidewalk, and the reason for that is there are gas mains underneath and if there's a second explosion, that those gas mains could blow. But, again, we do have confirmation. There is a second bomb in the Federal Building. We know it's on the east side. We're not sure what floor, what level, but there is definitely danger of a major second explosion. They're warning everybody to get as far back as they can. They're trying to get the bomb defused right now. They are in the process of doing it, but this could take some time. They're telling people that this is something to take very seriously, and not to slip forward to get a look at this, because this thing could definitely go off.

KWTV Channel 9: All right, we just saw, if you were watching, there, there was a white pickup truck backing a trailer into the scene here. They are trying to get people out of the way so that they can get it in. Appears to be the Oklahoma Bomb Squad. It's their Bomb Disposal Unit, is what it is, and it is what they would use if, if, the report that we gave you just a few minutes ago is correct, that a second explosive device of some kind is inside the building. They'll back that trailer in there, and the Bomb Squad folks will go in and they'll use that trailer. You see the bucket on the back? This is how they would transport the Explosive Device away from this populated area. They would try to do something.

Finally, KFOR announced:

The second explosive was found and defused. The third explosive was found — and they are working on it right now as we speak. I understand that both the second and the third explosives were larger than the first.^[105]

[Paramedic Tiffany Smith, who was working with other rescue personnel in the Murrah Building that morning, claims she was told by a black-suited ATF agent that another bomb had been found attached to a gas line.^[106]]

When Channel 4 interviewed terrorism expert Dr. Randall Heather at approximately 1:00 P.M. he stated: "We should find out an awful lot, when these bombs are taken apart.… We got lucky today, if you can consider anything about this tragedy lucky. It's actually a great stroke of luck, that we've got defused bombs. It's through the bomb material that we'll be able to track down who committed this atrocity."^[107]

In fact, it is uncertain if the bombs were taken apart and examined. As stated in a report prepared by the National Fire Protection Association: "The device was removed in the sheriff's bomb trailer and exploded in a remote location."^[108][109]

Incredibly, all these reports were quickly hushed up and denied later on. Suddenly, the additional bombs inside the building became a car-bomb outside the building, then a van containing 2,000 pounds of ANFO, then a truck containing 4,800 pounds.

Governor Keating, who himself had reported a second device, would later reverse his position, leading a statewide cover-up proclaiming that Representative Key and others investigating additional bombs and suspects were "howling at the moon," and "off the reservation."

When J.D. Cash, a journalist writing for the McCurtain County Gazette, tried to interview members of the Bomb Squad, Fire Department and Police, he was generally told by potential interviewees, "I saw a lot that day, I wish I hadn't. I have a wife, a job, a family… I've been threatened, we've been told not to talk about the devices."^[110]

When I attempted to interview two members of the Sheriff's Bomb Squad who were first on the scene, they told me there were no additional bombs taken away or detonated. When questioned further they became visibly uptight and referred me to their superior.

One law-enforcement official who had a little more practice at lying was Oklahoma City FBI SAC Bob Ricks, the master propagandist of Waco fame, who coolly stated to the press, "We never did find another device.… we confirmed that no other device existed."^[111]

The ATF, who initially denied even having any explosives in the building, eventually recanted their statements and told reporters that the 2 X 2 foot box was a "training bomb." I asked General Partin if there could be such a thing as an ATF "training bomb."

"I would certainly not think so," said Partin. "Look, when you have an EOD team — EOD teams are very well trained people. And any training device would have to be so labeled — so labeled. And the EOD people who were there were claiming it was explosives."^[112]

Former ATF man Rick Sherrow had his own thoughts on the issue of training bombs. "All the field offices have that material (training bombs). It's 100 percent on the outside — weighs the same, looks the same, but it has no fill — no inert markings or anything else. I can't say absolutely that's what was found in the building, but it's more than likely. They had stun grenades too, which are live. They can't contribute or anything [to the damage], but they lied about it, and that jams up their credibility."^[113]

Cash interviewed GSA workers who helped the ATF unload their arsenal room two weeks after the blast. Cash described in a series of Gazette articles beginning on May 4, 1995, how the ATF had stored weapons, explosives and ammunition in the Murrah Building in contravention of the very laws they were supposed to enforce:

Both the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau (ATF) and the Drug Enforcement Bureau (DEA) had explosives and weapons — including an anti-tank missile — illegally stored in the building when it blew up April 19, the McCurtain Gazette has learned. An eyewitness observer told the Gazette recently of assisting federal agents to remove weapons and explosive devices from a partially-damaged arsenal inside the Federal Building after the explosion.^[114]

Lester Martz, ATF Special Agent in Charge for the region, denied this. "That locker was intact," said Martz in an interview with the Dallas Morning News, and with the author. Martz went on to say that the blasted out area between columns B-2 and B-4 was the result of DEA ordinance. Yet the DEA offices were on the west side of the building on the seventh floor, nowhere near that area. The ATF offices, however, were in close proximity to it, being located in the top rear corner of the building, on the east side.

ATF officials were adamant in denying that no explosives were stored in the building. But it seems they did have C-4. OCPD Officer Don Browning, who viewed video footage taken by Sheriff Melvin Sumter, says C-4 was "definitely" carried out of the building. Browning, a Vietnam veteran, described the explosives he saw: "It was in wide blocks, about 3/4" thick, around 10" long, and about 2" wide, wrapped in cellophane."^[115][116]

Cash interviewed at least one unnamed witness who described helping ATF agents remove ordinance from their storage locker:

"One night, up on the ninth floor, where the ATF offices [were], I helped some of their agents load onto an elevator small arms, machine guns, several cases of ammunition and even some boxes marked 'Explosives'" he said.^[117]

The Gazette interviewed two more witnesses who assisted in the post bombing clean-up. One, a civilian contractor hired by the GSA, told the Gazette July 30th:

"They had everything! …home-made zip guns, AK-47s, sawed-off shotguns, AR-15s, M-16s — literally hundreds of guns. You name it, they had it all… any kind of weapon you could ever want." He also said he recalls seeing an ATF agent with a five-gallon bucket of hand-grenades.

"They carried out every conceivable type of firearm known to man," Cash told video producer Chuck Allen, "including hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, boxes marked explosives, hand grenades, everything short of a Russian T-72 tank." Finally, a witness told the Gazette:

"What was left of that [ATF magazine] room is in the far south-east end of the ninth floor, but much of it was blown away and [apparently] disappeared into the rubble right on top of the America's Kids Day Care Center."

The area just below the ATF's arsenal room — the coned-in area on the far left (south-east) side of the building seen in aerial photographs — is where most of the casualties occurred. This area extends one to two stories below the street level. (See Appendix)

Apparently, this is not the first time such a "mishap" has occurred. Approximately 10 years ago, some captured Soviet ordinance, including rockets with high-explosive warheads, wound up stored at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. There was a subsequent fire, and the exploding ordinance caused more than a little consternation among firefighters, especially when one rocket took off and blasted a two-foot diameter hole in a cinder block wall. When the story leaked out, the ATF reacted by removing more than 30 pounds of explosives from their offices down the street.^[118]

In Allen's video, Cash makes the assertion that the massive internal damage to the building was the result of secondary explosions caused by these illegally stored explosives. The ordinance, which included percussion caps for C-4 (and C-4 itself), had fallen from their ninth floor storage area after the initial truck blast, Cash suggests, to one of the lower floors, where it detonated, causing massive internal damage. According to Cash's experts, although C-4 is relatively safe to handle, it can be set off with 3500 p.s.i. of pressure.

General Partin disagrees with Cash's analysis, explaining: "For anything to have tumbled down from up there and done the increased damage is technically impossible… If something had fallen after that section had collapsed and caused an explosion that brought down [column] B-3, the thing would not have cropped the way it did. If you look up there at the top left hand side, you don't see anything up there that would indicate that you had a big blow-out at the top. If it had, it wouldn't of had anything to do with the column collapsing down below — they're too far away."

I asked Partin if C-4 could explode due to the increased air pressure resulting from the truck blast, from the weight of falling debris, or simply by falling eight or nine stories.

"Look," said Partin, "C-4 is kinda' tough to get to go; ammonium nitrate is even tougher. It takes a real intense shock wave to get that kind of explosive to go." Partin then added, "I thought I explained it to Cash, but I guess he's persisting with his story."

Why Cash would persist with his story while largely side-stepping Partin's analysis is curious. Yet if the ATF were responsible for the secondary explosion, it would seem they would have reason to lie.^[119] [Not only were they storing explosives illegally in a public building containing a day-care center, but almost the entire contingent of approximately 13 agents was absent on the day of the bombing (more on this later).]

Was the ATF in fact responsible, knowingly or unknowingly, for the explosion that destroyed the Murrah building? Consider the following article which appeared in the June 5, 1995 issue of Newsweek:

For the past year, the ATF and the Army Corps of Engineers have been blowing up car bombs at the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico. The project, code-named Dipole Might, is designed to create a computer model to unravel terrorist car-and truck-bomb attacks. By coincidence, a ATF agent assigned to Dipole Might, happened to be in Oklahoma City on April 19th, working at the Federal Courthouse, which stands across the street from the Murrah Building. He saw the devastation and called the ATF office in Dallas. The Murrah Building had just been hit by 'ANFO' (ammonium material) bomb of at least several thousand pounds, he reported. Within minutes, explosives agents trained under Dipole Might were dispatched to the scene. They identified the type and size of the bomb almost immediately.

Just how this agent (Harry Eberhardt) was able to immediately ascertain the building had been blown up by an ANFO bomb, when no forensic analysis had yet been conducted, is unclear. When Phil O'Halloran, a freelance journalist, attempted to ask the ATF Public Relations Bureau why a Dipole Might expert just happened to be in the courthouse at that moment, and how he could immediately have known the exact nature of the bomb, O'Halloran, rather than given a rational explanation, was accused of attacking the agency and was promised a fax of agency views on Right-wing conspiracists (which never arrived).^[120]

It is also unclear why was the Sheriff's Bomb Squad was in the parking lot between the Murrah Building and the Federal Courthouse at 7:45 that morning. The Bomb Squad denies being there. But Norma Smith and other Federal Courthouse employees recall seeing the Bomb Squad's distinctive white truck. "We did wonder what it was doing in our parking lot," recalled Smith. "Jokingly, I said, 'Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough.'"^[121]

Oklahoma City attorney Daniel J. Adomitis told the Forth Worth Star-Telegram he also saw the Bomb Squad there that morning. "As I was passing the back side of the County Courthouse, I noticed a truck with a trailer and the truck said 'Bomb Disposal.' I remember thinking as I passed that , 'Gee, I wonder if they had a bomb threat at the county courthouse?'"^[122]

Was the bomb squad alerted that something was in the works? Not according to the ever-controvertful Lester Martz. "I have not come across any information that any kind of bomb unit was at the building prior to the bombing," announced Martz with a straight face at the same time he lauded the heroism of Luke Franey, the ATF agent who supposedly "karate-kicked" his way through three walls.^[123]

What is certain is that the Murrah Building had a bomb threat one week prior to the 19th. Michael Hinton remembers looking out the window of his YMCA room a week before and seeing about 200-300 people gathered outside. The incident didn't jog his memory until the local TV networks announced on the morning of the blast that the Federal Building had received a threat just a week before.^[124]

Nurse Toni Garret recalled talking to several people who said there had been bomb threats two weeks prior to the bombing. "The FBI and the ATF knew that these bomb threats were real, and they did nothing about it."

Terrorism expert Dr. Randall Heather confirmed these reports, adding, "I know that there had been a threat phoned in to the FBI last week, but I don't know what the nature of that was."^[125]

According to the Oklahoma City Fire Department, the FBI phoned in a warning on April 14, almost a week before the bombing. Assistant Fire Chief Charles Gaines told Glenn Wilburn, who lost two grandsons in the blast, that there was never any warning. The grieving grandfather then walked down the hall to Assistant Chief Dispatcher Harvey Weathers office. Weathers told Wilburn in no uncertain terms that the Fire Department had indeed received a warning on April 14. Relating Gaines' apparent loss of memory to Weathers, he replied, "Well, you asked me and I told you. I'm not going to lie for anybody.…"^[126]

[Of course, one person perfectly willing to lie for everybody was FBI SAC Bob Ricks.] When asked during a press conference if the FBI had received a warning, Ricks said, "The FBI in Oklahoma City has not received any threats to indicate that a bombing was about to take place."

Interesting play on words. Was Ricks surreptitiously suggesting that one of the other FBI offices had received a warning? Or was there simply no reason for the FBI to receive a warning because they were in charge of the bombing from the beginning?

The transparent stories of the ATF and FBI are strikingly familiar to those propounded in the wake of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In that case, the FBI had one of its own informants — former Egyptian Army Colonel Emad Eli Salem — inside the group responsible for the bombing. According to Salem, who made secret tapes of his conversations with his FBI handler, Nancy Floyd, her supervisor refused to let Salem substitute a harmless powder for the real explosive. The agent then pulled Salem off the case. Soon afterwards, the bomb blew up, killing six people and injuring almost a 1,000 more.^[127]

It also seems that the "coincidence" of the ATF's Dipole Might tests were uncannily similar to the May 24, 1990 bombing of Earth First! activist Judi Bari. The FBI claimed that Bari and her companion Daryl Cherney, who were on their way to a peaceful protest rally, had inadvertently blown themselves up with their own pipe-bomb. After Bari sued the FBI for false arrest and civil rights violations, she found out though discovery that the FBI ran a "bomb school" at Eureka College of the Redwoods in April of 1990 for both FBI and local police. The classes included blowing up cars with pipe bombs, ostensibly to demonstrate the tactics used by terrorists (the same reason cited in the ATF's case). The instructor for this "school of terrorism" was none other than Frank Doyle Jr., the FBI bomb squad expert who showed up at the scene of Bari's car bombing one month later.

According to Freedom of Information Act records, Project Dipole Might was initiated under the authorization of Clinton's National Security Council. One of the stated purposes of the project was to produce computer models of bombings to "be displayed in a courtroom to aid in the prosecution of defendants." The Justice Department used the video tapes shot at White Sands during McVeigh's trial to "prove" that an ANFO bomb blew up the building. As Lawrence Myers, writing in Media Bypass magazine, asked:

Why the National Security Council would fund such an ATF project, despite the absolute rarity of the crime, has not been explained.… Nor has it been explained as to what specific threat assessment information the government had when it decided to engage in such a project, just a few months before a Ryder Truck laden with ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded in front of the Murrah Building.^[128]

As Myers points out, the last-known case of a truck-bomb exploding in the U.S. was in 1970, when an ANFO bomb exploded in front of the Army Math lab at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Why then, would the National Security Council suddenly feel the need for detailed information regarding ANFO truck-bomb attacks?

Was the ATF expecting such a bombing? Were they in fact responsible for blast or the secondary damage to the building? Or was the building wired for demolition as part of a larger plot?

["I'm firmly convinced that the ATF is guilty of an awful lot of things," said Bud, our ex-Green Beret. "I mean, if you look at what the ATF and the FBI did to Randy Weaver (and at Waco), it's just awful. They've gone hog wild and have [become] a power unto themselves."

Asked if he thought a rogue group or special unit within the military/intelligence community could or would commit such an act, Bud replied "It wouldn't really stun me."]

"The Face of Terror"

"Before the Government tries to convict someone, they try first to demonize him."
— Trial lawyer Gerry Spence

On May 1st, a stunned America was introduced to "The Face of Terror." The steely-eyed mug of Timothy James McVeigh, superimposed over the limp, bloody body of a tiny dead child, stared coldly out at us from the cover of Time magazine.

Suddenly, there was no longer any doubt who had bombed the Murrah Building. As John Doe No. 1 was led from the Noble County Courthouse in handcuffs and leg irons, the scene was something akin to a medieval script. "Baby Killer!" the crowd screamed. "Burn him! Burn him!"

In the pages that followed, Time and others would set out to "reveal the paranoid life and times of accused bomber Timothy McVeigh and his Right-wing associates."^[129] With the ink barely dry on the indictments, the national news media quickly began pumping out story after story focusing on the trivial banalities of McVeigh's life, attempting to reinforce the official allegations of his guilt. While the New York Times set the overall tone based on "leaks" from federal law enforcement sources, self-styled experts came crawling out of the woodwork.

"In deeply disturbing ways, his is a portrait of his generation," quipped Dale Russak and Serge Kovaleski, two sociologists moonlighting for the Washington Post.^[130]

"…his tortured path — is a psychological portrait of his deterioration…." John Kifner of the New York Times announced with the authority of a Freudian analyst. "First there was McVeigh's own stunted personality and immediate frustrations. He was never able to overcome a sense of abandonment by his mother…."^[131]

"Not making the Special Forces was something that was very hard for him to deal with," said an FBI agent training for his Ph.D. in psychology. "In his mind, much of his life has been one of thinking that he is a kind of Special Forces of his own."^[132]

Finally: "He was the quiet one," said McVeigh's former 10th grade English teacher Coleen Conner, throwing a bit of adolescent psychology on the situation. "A lot of the quiet ones are the ones who have ended up doing scary things…."^[133]

There it was — trial by media. Timothy McVeigh must be guilty, after all, they put his face on the cover of Time magazine.^[134]

[Time. As journalist Jon Rappaport put it, "the home of faintly patronizing stories that go nowhere." Like the carefully manufactured image of Lee Harvey Oswald, the media would construct a menagerie reality of Timothy James McVeigh, suitable for public consumption.]

Fortunately, in the avalanche of articles that would follow, small hints of reality would occasionally seep through the mire.

"That just doesn't ring true to me, as to the person I knew," said Sheffield Anderson, a correctional officer who had gone through basic training with McVeigh and served with him in the Gulf. "In that picture of him coming out of the courthouse, he looks like a real mean guy. But I didn't sense anything out of the ordinary. McVeigh was a rational type guy, a thinking type person. The bombing thing is totally contrary to the person I knew."^[135]

"The Timothy McVeigh I talked with didn't seem like a baby killer," said former Army Colonel David Hackworth about his Newsweek interview with McVeigh.^[136]

During an interview on Prime Time Live, Lana Padilla, Terry Nichols ex-wife, told Diane Sawyer, "It's not the same person. I mean, you know…"

Sawyer: "The stony face."

Padilla: "No." ^[137]

"It became obvious during the hour-long discussion that Timothy McVeigh is neither a monster nor a madman," wrote Lawrence Myers, who interviewed McVeigh for Media Bypass magazine. "He left the impression that he is a man with strong convictions and a sense of honor."^[138]

So just who is Timothy James McVeigh? Is he a hardened killer as the press and federal authorities have made him out to be? Or is he an ordinary man who became caught up in a complicated web of intrigue and deception?

"Timmy"

Timothy James McVeigh was born in Pendelton, New York on April 23, 1968, a small working class town of 5,000 people just outside of Buffalo. Tim was the second child of Bill McVeigh, an auto worker, and Mildred, a travel agent. The elder McVeigh, 55, coached Little League and ran bingo night at the local catholic church, spending his free time golfing, or putzing in his garden. A heavily wooded rural area, young Tim spent his time hiking or playing sports with the neighborhood boys.

"He lived a few houses down from me, said boyhood friend Keith Maurer. "We played hockey, baseball and just about every other sport in the neighborhood. He wasn't the best athlete in the bunch, but he showed up to play every day and he always played hard."

The bright and inventive youngster also spent his time engaging in novel activities such as setting up a haunted house in his basement, where he charged admission, or holding weekend casino fairs, where he acted as the dealer.

"He was very advanced for our age, "Maurer said. "I remember saying to myself: I wouldn't have thought of that."

Pat Waugh, a neighbor, said "I used to think to myself, that kid is going to go somewhere just because he's such a mover and shaker. I pictured him growing up to be a salesman, sort of a shyster."

When Tim's mom moved out in June of 1984, the outgoing young McVeigh became more reserved, as he and his sisters, Patty and Jennifer, attempted to deal with the trauma of the breakup. Reverend Paul Belzer of the Good shepherd Roman Catholic Church in Pendelton knew the family for 20 years. "People asked me, wasn't Tim crushed? But he didn't seem to be. He lived in the same house, had the same friends. Yeah, he'd have to miss his mother, but so many of the anchors were there."

Yanya Panepento, a classmate of Tim's recalled, He was a quiet boy. He kept to himself. He didn't seem like he was a trouble maker or anything like that."

Yet, nine months after the bombing, the Times John Kifner would write, "As commonplace as this seems, criminologists say, these traits are often the stuff of serial killers, terrorists and other solitary murderers."

To the armchair psychoanalysts of the mainstream/tabloid media, the breakup would be the first of two major events — the second being his initial failure to make the Special Forces — that would profoundly and adversely affect the young McVeigh's personality. The first indications of this came when reporters discovered in his high school yearbook that Tim had been voted "most talkative" by his senior class.

"The only thing I can remember is that he was very quite and polite," recalled Cecelia Matyjas, who taught 10th grade geometry. "He didn't cause any problems in class. He seemed to be cooperative and attentive. He was on the track team and the cross-country team, so he was able to get along with others."

Brandon Stickney, a journalist contracted to produce an unauthorized biography of McVeigh for Prometheus Books, said "Tim was not the most talkative out of his class of 194 students, but he was by no means introverted. He was certainly an outgoing young man who had many friends and acquaintances."

Yet none of these easy to check facts were ever mentioned in the volumous articles which appeared in the Times. Kifner, the Times "resident analyst," proclaimed with surety, "He was never able to overcome a sense of abandonment by his mother, who left the family when he was a boy; nor could he find a home outside the Army."

Backing up Kifner was John Douglas of the FBI's Psychological Profile Unit, who claimed McVeigh was "asocial, asexual, a loner, withdrawn, from a family with problems, strong feelings of inadequacy from early in life, an underachiever."

"I think it's a bunch of psychobable if you ask me, if you want to know the truth," said Jennifer, Tim's younger sister. "We were free to live with who we wanted. We could visit the other parent whenever we wanted. There was no bitterness between my parents."

"There's nothing there, added McVeigh himself, responding to the media's analysis of him in a July 3rd interview with Newsweek.

Apparently, Douglas and the so-called journalists from the New York Times never bothered to check on the fact that Tim had many friends, including several girlfriends later in life, was close to his Father and his sister Jennifer, and was a Regents Scholar.

Not to be hamstrung by such minor details [as checking on facts], the Times and the Post quickly jumped on the idea that Tim was interested in firearms. "In a region of hunting enthusiasts, it caused little stir when Tim, at 10, became interested in guns. But a close relative said that the family saw this as a bid for attention by a boy who didn't know how else to ask for it."

"He had a semiautomatic BB gun that could fire 15 rounds with the pull of a trigger," added the Post. "Other boys had only single-shot varieties. Tim used to show them at school how he held it, posing police-style with hands clasped together. During boring classes, when other students doodled, he drew guns."

In fact, Tim's father did buy him a .22-caliber rifle, which the young McVeigh would use for target practice in the woods behind his home. Yet apparently Tim was not the young blood-thirsty adventurer the media made him out to be. "I remember starting to hunt at age 11," said his friend Keith Maurer, "and Tim never had any interest in this."

McVeigh was later able to indulge in his interests in firearms as a security guard for Burke Armored, where he worked for a year or so in 1987. Jeff Camp, McVeigh's co-worker, noted that he had a keen interest in guns, although he didn't find it unusual since most full-time security guards and law enforcement personnel owned an assortment of firearms, he said.

One story eagerly circulated amongst the press is that McVeigh showed up at Burke one day with a huge Desert Eagle pistol and bandoleers slung in an "X" across his chest. "He came to work looking like Rambo," recalled Camp. "It looked like World War III."

Yet McVeigh laughs off the tale, stating that he and some other employees were simply playing a joke on their supervisor, who was sending them on a high profile assignment for the day. Apparently, their supervisor was not amused.

According to the Post, McVeigh also worked as a gun salesman at a sporting goods store in Lockport.

"Guns were the entire focal point of the 27-year-old Mr. McVeigh's life," wrote the Times' Kifner.

"This obsession with weapons — a form of power — is an overcompensation for deep-rooted feelings of inadequacy," added the FBI's Douglas, attempting to drive another nail into McVeigh's coffin.

One must wonder if an interest in stamp collecting or bird watching — other legitimate hobbies — could be construed as a "bid for attention." The author — much more of a "trouble maker" in his formative years than Timothy McVeigh — personally remembers his own interest in guns, and even military armor. Like motorcycles, fast cars or other macho symbols, such interests pass as one matures. Yet federal authorities, with the backing of the corporate-owned media, attempted to make this a cornerstone of their psuedo-psychological case against McVeigh. He was "obsessed with guns," ergo, he is a mad bomber. I doubt if all the gun enthusiasts in the country would be pleased to know they are, by association, being implicated as mad bombers.

Not to be deterred, Post reporters discovered that young Tim had stockpiled food, camping equipment and weapons in case of a disaster "…in case of a nuclear attack or the Communists took over the country," said an anonymous neighbor in the Post. "Perhaps it made sense that a young boy often forced to fend for himself would fantasize about fighting the world all alone," mused the Post. Fighting the world? Or developing common sense at a young age? In his Media Bypass interview, McVeigh recalled that one of his most vivid memories was the winter blizzard of 1977, which dumped 15 feet of snow on Pendelton, stranding his mother miles away, and knocking out power and phone lines for days. The young, inventive McVeigh responded by helping his father store necessities, even recommending that the older McVeigh purchase a generator.

Apparently the armchair psychoanalysts of the mainstream press felt this indicative of early creeping paranoia, rather than the natural combination of the active imagination and common sense inherent in a remarkable nine-year old boy. If the youngster was concerned about Communists, one only need ask where such fears were incubated.

The Post, keeping with the propaganda of Timothy McVeigh as underachiever, was quoted as saying "Tim's high-school yearbook entry in 1986 listed no organized activities (he omitted the track team), rather: 'staying away from school, losing sleep, finding it in school.'"

Yet even the Post admitted that Tim's guidance counselor, Harold Smith, said that he had not missed a day of classes from seventh through twelfth grade. Far from being an underachiever, his record indicates a young man with remarkable discipline.

Justin Gertner, who knew McVeigh since second grade recalls, "he hung around with the intelligently elite at Starpoint. Tim was in the Regent's program in our school for advanced placement students who planned on attending college. He also created and ran our computer bulletin board system."

In fact, McVeigh excelled in computers, taking every available computer class in high school. He even designed his own computer program. "That was the age when there was no software to speak of, and it wasn't user friendly," said a teacher who asked to remain anonymous, "But Tim and some other kids went out and did this…. In a way, that was fairly advanced. This demonstrates his bright mind and his ability."

This bright mind and ability led McVeigh to Bryant & Stratton Business College in Williamsville, N.Y. to study advanced COBOL and FORTRAN programming languages. In spite of his abilities, opportunities for decent employment were uncertain in Buffalo in the mid-1980s. Buffalo, like the rest of the Rust Belt, was experiencing the worst of economic trends. Several steel and auto plants had shut down, and two major banks failed, throwing thousands of white-collar workers out of jobs and causing downturns in real-estate, advertising, law and other fields.^[139]

"There are no jobs around here unless you want to work for $6 an hour or less at a McDonald's or Wendy's," said Bill McVeigh. "It's rough for anybody looking for work."

McVeigh apparently did not feel comfortable that his auto-worker father was paying for most of his college tuition. So in December 1987, he took a job with Burke Armored Truck (now known as Armored Services of America) in Cheektowaga, near Buffalo.

"He was a very alert guard." said Jeff Camp, McVeigh's co-worker. "He worked a lot of overtime and was polite with our customers." McVeigh was also moody, ranging from intense to quiet. "If someone was driving badly, cutting us off or interfering with our schedule, he could get pretty mad," added Camp. "His face would turn red and he would yell and scream inside the truck, although he calmed down pretty fast." (Similar to the way the author drives.) Camp also described an incident where a woman had hit their truck. Although the woman was upset, McVeigh calmed her down and told her not to worry, that there was no damage to the truck, and that he would even report it as their fault, which it wasn't.^[140]

McVeigh worked at Burke from April of 1987 till May of 1988. By the time he was 19, McVeigh had built up a substantial savings account and he and a friend, David Darlak, acquired 10 acres of land for $7,000 at a hunting and camping retreat north of Olean, N.Y. The two young men bought the land as an investment, and to use for camping and for target practice.^[141] Reported the Post:

"Robert Morgan, who lives nearby, said his father Charlie once called the state police to complain about all the gunfire. 'My dad turned him in," he said. "One day it sounded like a war out there. Sometimes he'd come down during the week, sometimes the weekend. He had on hunting clothes. Camouflage.'"^[142]

While the press made much out of the fact that McVeigh and his friends used the land for target practice, it should be noted that McVeigh was law-abiding and did not have a criminal record.

By the Spring of 1988, the young security guard felt he was going nowhere. He was working in a relatively low-wage job while listening to the fate of those who had been laid-off while working other jobs. Tim's father listened with concern as Tim vented his frustration, complaining that he was unemployable except at jobs that paid "no money." One night Bill McVeigh and a friend from the auto plant suggested that the younger McVeigh enter the service.

"Bill and I had both been in the service," the friend said, "and one night we said to Tim, 'That's what you ought to do: go in the service.' A week later, he had joined."

"It happened in a split second," said Tim's co-worker Jeff Camp. "He didn't tell anyone he was joining. He just came to work one day and said he was going in the Army.^[143] I never saw a guy who wanted to go in the Army that bad. I asked him why the Army, and he said 'You get to shoot.' He always wanted to carry an M-16."^[144]

Keith Maurer said, "I couldn't see him joining the military. He had a lot of options. He was very smart. I didn't see the military as the one he needed to take."

[But to McVeigh, who saw his career options in economically depressed Upstate New York as bleak, the Army made perfect sense.] The Army held the possibility of travel and adventure for a boy from a small town. In the Army, he could choose his specialty, indulging his interest in firearms or computers.

On May 24, McVeigh drove the 25 miles to the Army recruiting office in Buffalo, and signed up for a three-year hitch. "In a couple of days he was gone," said Camp.

Sergeant Mac

McVeigh arrived at Fort Benning, Georgia on May 30, and was assigned to Echo Company, 4th Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Training Brigade. The unit was a COHORT unit, an acronym for "Cohesion Operational Readiness and Training." In a COHORT unit, soldiers were supposed to stay together for their entire three-year enlistment period. The COHORT concept originated in 1980, in an attempt to correct the problem of sending in raw green recruits for those who had been killed in battle. The Army discovered that many new replacements had difficulty adjusting to a new unit in the heat of battle, resulting in a higher number of casualties. Moreover, Pentagon studies from the Vietnam War era suggested that soldiers who had developed bonds of friendship were more likely to perform courageously. Unfortunately, the Army soon developed a new problem: many of the soldiers became sick of each other after three years, resulting in soldiers committing suicide or going AWOL.

Although McVeigh originally wanted to try out for Army Ranger School, he didn't want to wait for an available opening, and decided to join the infantry immediately. As he sound found out, he had been misled by the Army recruiter. Once in the COHORT unit, it was not possible for him to enter Army Ranger School. Yet the disappointed young recruit quickly made the best of the situation, scoring a high 126 points on his General Technical test score, putting him in the top 10 percentile among new recruits.

"McVeigh was really motivated to be a good soldier and performed well at everything expected of him," said assistant platoon leader Glen "Tex" Edwards. "You could load that boy up with 140 pounds of gear and he would carry it all day on the march without complaining. He was thin as a rail but he never fell out of formation," said Edwards, recalling the hot Georgia summer of 1988. " It was the worst time of the year to go through the course, but it did not seem to bother McVeigh one bit."

Although McVeigh didn't have many close friends during basic training, one person he would develop a close friendship with was Terry Nichols. Nichols, 13 years McVeigh's senior, was promoted to platoon leader due to his age and maturity. Despite their age difference however, the two men bonded, sharing similar interests. "Terry and Tim in boot camp went together like magnets," said Robin Littleton.

By the end of basic training, McVeigh was promoted to private E-2, having managed to score higher than anyone in his battalion on his mid-cycle and end-of-cycle testing. "Any test, he'd ace it," said David Dilly. "He knew exactly what the Army wanted. It was going to be an easy life for him."

On August 25, 1988, McVeigh was awarded a certificate by his commanding officer, then in September the unit was shipped out to Fort Riley, Kansas, where McVeigh was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, First Infantry Division, part of the "Dagger Brigade" of the famous "Big Red One" that made the assault on Normandy during WWII. While McVeigh was assigned to Charlie Company, Nichols went to Bravo Company.

A mechanized infantry unit, 2nd Battalion was equipped with M-2 Bradley Armored vehicles, a more sophisticated version of the famous M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier used during the Vietnam War. In addition to ferrying troops, the aluminum Bradley has a turret-mounted 25mm cannon, a 7.62mm machine gun and anti-tank missiles. McVeigh was the gunner on one of four Bradleys attached to Charlie Company's First Platoon. Naturally, he scored higher than anyone else in the battalion. In 1989, his commander selected him as gunner on the "Division Display Vehicle," used to demonstrate the M-2 system for Pentagon officials and visiting dignitaries.

"He was without a doubt the best soldier I have ever trained with," said Staff Sergeant Albert Warnement, McVeigh's supervisor at Fort Riley. He was motivated and very interested in learning everything he could about being a professional soldier."^[145]

"As far as soldiering, he never did anything wrong," said Todd Reiger, assigned to McVeigh's Bradley. "He was always on time. He never got into trouble. He was perfect. I thought he would stay in the Army all his life. He was always volunteering for stuff that the rest of us wouldn't want to do, guard duties, classes on the weekend."^[146]

McVeigh studied every conceivable Army manual, including the Ranger Handbook, the Special Forces Handbook, and the Improvised Munitions Handbook. But press reports [portrayed] McVeigh as a mad bomber:

McVeigh's love of guns and explosives stood out even in the Army, where gun lovers abound. In the first weeks of basic training, when soldiers learn to make explosives, recalled platoon mate Fritz Curnutte, McVeigh boasted to fellow soldiers that he already knew how to make a powerful bomb using a bottle, then told them how to make a Molotov cocktail.^[147]

According to Warnement, such knowledge is not unusual for the more serious soldiers, who routinely studied manuals on survival, evasion, resistance and escape, and improvised munitions. "You have to remember," said Warnement, "at that time, we were training to fight the Russians in Western Europe and it was expected the Red Army would probably break through our lines almost immediately. We were encouraged to learn how to improvise. Our survivability on the battlefield would likely depend on our skills in unconventional warfare."^[148]

Although McVeigh's military record makes no mention of formal demolitions training, in her book, By Blood Betrayed, Lana Padilla calls McVeigh a "former Army demolitions expert."^[149] But Sheffield Anderson, who served with McVeigh since basic training said "He had the same training that the rest of the outfit had."^[150]

The only thing that differentiated McVeigh from the rest of the outfit was his dedication and commitment to the military. "He played the military 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Curnutte. "All of us thought it was silly. When they'd call for down time, we'd rest, and he'd throw on a rucksack and walk around the post with it."

This "silliness" led to McVeigh making sergeant ahead of the rest of his unit. "It was unusual to have sergeant stripes so soon," said Reiger. "The rest of us in the Cohort [unit] were specialists," a non-supervisory rank similar to corporal.

In fact, after the bombing, when McVeigh's records and test scores were shown to a master sergeant without revealing his identity, he stated that the subject "would make a great infantry officer, tanker, artillery officer or combat engineer." His electronic aptitude, said another official, qualified him for "repairing satellite communications."^[151] "He has a very high IQ," said a federal source familiar with the suspect's military record.^[152] In fact, McVeigh was rated among the top 5 percent in combat arms.

McVeigh rented a three-bedroom house in the spring of 1991 in Herrington with Corporal John Kelso and Sergeant Rick Cerney. But the arrangement was not a comfortable one for McVeigh, and he soon moved into another house which he shared with Sgt. Royal Wilcher, who served with McVeigh in the Bradley.

The Times quoted members of the McVeigh's unit claiming that he had no close friends. "He kept to himself," said Robert Handa. "He was a dedicated soldier. He loved being a soldier. I didn't. So after duty hours he'd stay in the barracks while everybody else took off, go out to town. I never saw him go anywhere. He always had a highly pressed uniform." Reiger recalls that McVeigh had a TV and a VCR and stayed in and watched movies, or occasionally went bowling.

"The whole thing is," said John Kelso, who shared a house off-base with McVeigh and fellow soldier Richard Cerney, "he couldn't have a good time."

"He was very shy of women — almost embarrassed," said Anderson. "It didn't seem he was gay. He was just awkward." McVeigh disputed this analysis in his April 15th Time interview, stating:

"I don't think there is any way to narrow my personality down and label it as one thing or another. I'm just like anyone else. Movies I enjoy, comedies, sci fi. The big misconception is that I'm a loner. Well, I believe in having my own space. But that in no way means I'm a loner. I like women, social life…."

McVeigh became friends with bombing suspect Michael Fortier while stationed at Fort Riley. He and Fortier would occasionally go shooting together at a friend's farm near Tuttle Creek Lake, and stop by and visit Terry Nichols at his house near the base.

The press was quick to pick up on McVeigh owning lots of guns he kept hidden around his house. According to Wilcher, "He had a couple in the kitchen, a couple in the living room under the couch. I think there was one in the bathroom, behind the towels. As you go up the steps there was a little ledge and he kept one in there too, a .38 revolver." "I don't know if he was paranoid or what," added Wilcher. "Or maybe he had some friends that were after him. I don't know."^[153]

According to an account in USA Today and the Times, McVeigh and Nichols, who by now were pretty far along in their "anti-government" beliefs, attempted to recruit other military personnel for a militia that Nichols was purportedly starting. Nichols reportedly told at least one fellow soldier that he'd be back to Fort Riley after his discharge to recruit new men, and McVeigh's co-worker at Burns Security, Carl Lebron, would later tell the FBI that McVeigh was always trying to "recruit him into an undescribed group.…"^[154]

According to Dave Dilly, one of McVeigh's roommates, McVeigh rented a storage locker in Junction City, stocked with weapons, military meals (MREs), and a 100-gallon jug of water — in case of disaster or a Communist attack.^[155]

"He was halfway there when I knew him," said Dilly, referring to McVeigh's Patriot beliefs. During McVeigh's tenure at Burns Security, McVeigh would inundate his co-workers with Patriot literature, such as the Spotlight, articles and videos on Ruby Ridge and Waco, and books such as Detaxing America.

For his part, McVeigh says, "If you had to label what I think, then I would say I am closest to the views of the Patriot movement," McVeigh told the London Sunday Times. "For a long time, I thought it was best not to talk about my political views, he added, "but millions share them, and I believe it is gravely wrong that I should allow the government to try and crucify me just for believing what I do."

Interestingly, McVeigh would tell his friend Carl Lebron, who shared some of McVeigh's beliefs, "All the reading you do is just a hobby. You stamp your feet, but you're not doing anything."

Another issue the media focused on were race problems in Charlie Company, and with McVeigh in particular. Regier told the Post that McVeigh was criticized for assigning undesirable work to black soldiers, making black specialists sweep out the motor pool, work that would have ordinarily gone to privates. Other soldiers said he made derogatory remarks about blacks. "It was pretty well known, pretty much throughout the platoon, that he was making the black specialists do that work," said Regier. "He was a racist. When he talked he'd mention those words, like nigger. You pretty much knew he was a racist." The black soldiers complained to a company commander and McVeigh was reprimanded, the only time he ever got into trouble according to Regier.^[156]

Dilly said that "Race was an issue, like everywhere in America, but not one that affected anyone's promotion. McVeigh picked the best man for the job."

Yet the McCurtain Gazette discovered that McVeigh held membership in the Ku Klux Klan. Apparently, he boasted that it was personally approved by Thom Robb, the KKK's national chaplain. "He was a very racist person," said Wilcher.

"Charlie Company as a whole had a problem with race," said Captain Terry Guild, who served briefly as McVeigh's platoon commander after the Gulf War. "There was graffiti on the walls of the barracks' bathroom: 'Nigger' or 'Honky, Get Out.' They were mild incidents. If a problem was identified, a leader in Charlie Company wouldn't let it happen again if he saw it. But it was definitely a problem in the company. And his platoon had some of the most serious race problems. It was pretty bad."

In spite of such interpersonal or racial difficulties, most of the platoon held McVeigh in high esteem for his soldiering abilities. "He could command soldiers of his own rank and they respected him," said Barner. "When it came to soldiering, McVeigh knew what he was doing."

"If we ever went to war," said Edwards, "every one of us wanted to go to war with McVeigh." ^[157]

During the summer of 1989, after returning from a week-long orientation session in Heidelberg with the West German Army, or Bundeswehr, McVeigh decided to try out for the Army Special Forces. To the young sergeant who had long desired to be a member of the Army's elite, the Special Forces provided the chance. It also provided McVeigh an opportunity to graduate from the COHORT unit. Yet the physical requirements to even qualify for the Special Forces are among the toughest in the military. Requirements include swimming 50 meters with full gear; 42 push-ups in two minutes; 52 sit-ups in two minutes; and running two miles in less than 15 minutes 54 seconds. To pass the grueling tests, McVeigh began training vigorously in the summer of 1989, working out constantly, and forcing himself to march 10 miles with 100 pound packs. By the summer of 1990, he had passed the Special Forces physical fitness test, and was ordered to report to Fort Bragg, NC on November 17 to begin the Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course (SFAS). Towards the end of 1990, McVeigh reinlisted for another four years. ^[158]

Yet McVeigh's dream of becoming a Green Beret would have to wait. On November 8th, with the conflict in the Persian Gulf coming to a head, the Pentagon canceled all leaves and training assignments. McVeigh's unit was activated for deployment. Although he was the consummate military man, the gung-ho soldier, McVeigh was against the decision to go to war. "McVeigh did not think the United States had any business or interest in Kuwait," said Warnement, "but he was a good soldier. He knew it was his duty to go where he was told, and he went." He was promoted to sergeant on February 1, 1991.^[159]

Unlike the steely-eyed killer the press have painted him to be, McVeigh was as scared as the rest of the platoon. "The night before the ground war kicked off, he was saying he was scared because we were going to be part of the first wave," Anderson recalled. "He was scared we weren't going to come out of it. Maybe we would get shot, blown up. It wasn't cowardly. He was just concerned. I was feeling the same way, but most people didn't express it."^[160]

On February 24, 1990, the 2nd Battalion was ordered across the southern Iraqi desert to punch a hole in Iraqi defenses — a line of dug-in infantry supported by tanks and artillery. McVeigh's platoon was attached to the "Ironhorse" tank company, and McVeigh's Bradley was the lead track in the platoon. McVeigh, the "top gun," took out an enemy tank on the first day with a TOW missile.

The "Ironhorse" protected units clearing the trenches. Using tanks and trucks equipped with plows, the U.S. forces would follow behind the Bradleys, burying the Iraqis dead or alive, to create a smooth crossing point for the infantry and avoid having to engage the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.

McVeigh's moment of glory came when his platoon encountered a dug-in enemy machine-gun emplacement and came under fire. McVeigh brought his 25mm cannon to bear on the chest of an enemy soldier 1,000 yards away, and took his head off with one shot. He followed up with a similar shot, which was followed by the raising of a white flag and the raising of more than 60 hands into the air.

For his role in the battle, McVeigh was awarded an Army Commendation Medal which read in part: "He inspired other members of his squad and platoon by destroying an enemy machine-gun emplacement, killing two Iraqi soldiers and forcing the surrender of 30 others from dug-in positions." McVeigh also earned a Commendation medal with an upgrade for valor, two Army Achievement medals, and the Bronze Star "for flawless devotion to duty."

This "flawless devotion to duty" resulted in McVeigh's unit being invited to provide personal security for General "Stormin' Norman" Schwarzkopf.

A much-hackneyed phrase attributed to Sergeant James Ives, which the media like to play over and over again was, "If he was given a mission and a target, it's gone." Yet Roger Barnett, who served in McVeigh's Bradley, told the Times that McVeigh never expressed any desire to kill troops who were surrendering and never seemed bloodthirsty in any way.^[161]

[Yet the Times' preordained slant on McVeigh was clearly evident. While others in his outfit "served" during the Gulf War, McVeigh "killed Iraqis." ^[162]]

One story which appeared in Media Bypass [but predictably never made it into the mainstream press,] recounts how McVeigh saved an accident victim's life on a lonely stretch of highway. The man had been ejected from his overturned car and lay semi-conscious and bleeding. A passing semi had stopped but was unable to find him as he lay in the darkness 50 yards away. McVeigh, who was on his way to his home town of Pendelton, had recently finished a 46-hour medical aid course at Fort Riley. Against regulations, he had taken his Combat Lifesaver Pack with him on the 1200-mile drive. As he came upon the scene, McVeigh saw that an EMS (Emergency Medical Service) crew had not yet arrived. Trained in night vision techniques, McVeigh the soldier quickly spotted the injured motorist in the grass along the median strip. Following is an excerpt from the Media Bypass article:

The victim recalls that the soldier was confident, quiet and efficient. To centralize his circulation, he elevated the man's undamaged limbs and warned him to be calm to avoid going into shock. He checked his pulse and flashed a small penlight across his pupils. The man, who only moments earlier was convinced he was going to die, shivered in the dark and started laughing. He told the tall young stranger he was never going to buy another Chevy Blazer again.

The soldier smiled as he rolled up the victim's right sleeve and inserted the needle to start a saline IV into his veins. "You've lost a lot of blood and you risk going into shock. This is an IV to help stabilize you and keep your fluids going. Relax. You'll be fine," he told him. He placed the clear plastic IV bag under the man's hip and checked his pulse again.

In the distance, an ambulance siren screamed over the sound of the truck engines as Timothy James McVeigh quickly packed up his Army issue trauma kit and disappeared into the night. The responding EMS crew told the state police officer who arrived at the accident minutes later that they had never come upon such a potentially deadly crash to find a severely injured man relaxed and laughing, neatly bandaged with an IV dangling from his arm.^[163]

In a flurry of articles, mainstream media painted McVeigh as a psychotic, attention-seeking loner with a grudge against the government and a hatred of humanity. A man with "a stunted personality," who led a "tortured path," "obsessed with weapons" and with "deep-rooted feelings of inadequacy." When the press couldn't find evidence of overt violence or hostility, his noted politeness and manners suddenly became evidence his of his psychosis. "It is a personality that a Seattle forensic psychiatrist, Kenneth Muscatel, has described as the "Smerdyakov Syndrome," announced the Times, "after the scorned half-brother in Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov who listens to the other brothers inveigh against their father until, finally, he commits patricide."^[164]

McVeigh was painted as a sociopath when Lana Padilla, in her book, By Blood Betrayed, hinting that McVeigh may have been responsible for the death of 26-month-old Jason Torres Nichols — Terry and Marife's son — who accidentally suffocated to death in a plastic bag in November of 1993.^[165] Yet Padilla included a photo in her book of McVeigh laughing and playing with the little boy. And according to Terry Nichols, McVeigh had tried to revive the infant for nearly half an hour, and had called the paramedics — a response apparently out-of-character with the actions of a deranged sociopathic killer.^[166]

Captain Jesus Rodriguez, who commanded McVeigh during Desert Storm, described him as a friend who was "really compassionate" and "really cared" when Rodriguez's brother-in-law died in an accident.^[167]

Further evidence of McVeigh's humanity can be found in a letter he wrote to the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal on March 10, 1992: (See appendix for full text)

To buy your meat in a store seems so innocent, but have you ever seen or thought how it comes to be wrapped up so neatly in cellophane?

First, cattle live their entire lives penned up in cramped quarters, never allowed to roam freely, bred for one purpose when their time has come.

The technique that I have personally seen is to take cattle, line them up side by side with their heads and necks protruding over a low fence, and walk from one end to the other, slitting their throats with either machete or power saw. Unable to run or move, they are left there until they bleed to death, standing up.

Would you rather die while living happily or die while leading a miserable life? You tell me which is more "humane."

Does a "growing percentage of the public" have any pity or respect for any of the animals which are butchered and then sold in the store? Or is it just so conveniently "clean" that a double standard is allowed?

The mainstream press twisted the context of McVeigh's letter. In his [book], A Force Upon the Plain, author Kenneth Stern writes: "McVeigh said he thought a human being was, by nature, 'a hunter, a predator.' He also asked: 'Is civil war imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system?'"^[168] Stern takes two unrelated letters written by McVeigh, then craftily combines them to suggest that the humane killing of animals is actually part and parcel of McVeigh's bloodthirsty desire to kill human beings.^[169]

Reality paints a much different picture of Timothy James McVeigh however. In February of 1996, Ron Rice and Carol Moore of the American Board of Forensic Examiners were asked to produce a profile of McVeigh's personality based on a handwriting analysis.^[170] Both Rice and Moore characterized McVeigh as an introverted person — what they term an "Apollonian" personality — "a steady, unemotional, organized individual who [is] not devoid of emotion/passion, but more apt to value reason over passion." Like Sheffield Anderson, who described McVeigh as a "thinking type person," the examiners stated that McVeigh was "head-oriented." "They tend to be distrustful of feeling in the belief that following one's feelings can lead to trouble," the report stated. "Rarely, will he allow his emotional expressions to be directed at another person out of fear of hurting them…."

The report concluded with the observation that Timothy McVeigh "is a military man… his heart and soul belongs to the military of the U.S. Government. In a non-military environment, McVeigh will not undertake any form of overt hostility that will be harmful to others or dangerous to himself…. It is not logical that he would undertake any action against our government in which others would be hurt or killed. To do so would violate everything he stands for."^[171]

In April of 1991, McVeigh put his heart and soul into his long-awaited dream of becoming a Green Beret. On March 28 he reported to Camp McCall, the Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) training facility west of Fort Bragg, for the grueling 21-day assessment course. But McVeigh, who had kept himself in top shape by doing 400 push-ups a day and marching around the post with a 100 pound pack was now out of shape and he knew it. The Bradley gunner who had served in the Persian Gulf for four months was also drained from the stress of combat.

As the recruits stood at attention, the instructor asked several of the recently returned war veterans if they wanted to return to their unit to get back in shape. One of the soldiers yelled that they were ready, so out of a sense of gung-ho pride, nobody backed out.

The first day of testing was devoted to psychological screening. McVeigh claims he had no problem with the psychological tests, which included the Adult Personality Inventory, the Minnesota Multiple Phase Personality Test, and a sentence completion exam designed by Army psychologists.

The second day of tests began with an obstacle course which McVeigh passed with ease. After lunch, the recruits were led on a high-speed march with 50 pound rucksacks. Yet new boots tore into McVeigh's feet during the five mile march, and with the worst yet to come, he and another recruit, David Whitmyer, decided to drop out. McVeigh signed a Voluntary/Involuntary Withdrawal from the SFAS school. His single sentence explanation read: "I am not physically ready, and the rucksack march hurt more than it should."^[172]

The mainstream press jumped on his initial failure to make the Special Forces. He was "unable to face the failure" stated the New York Times. "He washed out on the second day."^[173]

"There were no second chances," claimed the Washington Post. "His spirit was broken."^[174]

These reports suggested that McVeigh had failed the psychological screening tests. "Military officials said that preliminary psychological screening had shown him to be unfit," lauded the ever-wise voice of the New York Times. "[He] saw his cherished hope of becoming a Green Beret shattered by psychological tests."^[175] "It was apparently a blow so crushing that he quit the Army and went into a psychic tailspin."^[176]

Media pundits quickly backed up their armchair analyses' with statements from several of McVeigh's former buddies.

"Anyone who puts all that effort into something and doesn't get it would be mentally crushed," said Roger Barnett, the driver of McVeigh's Bradley. "He wasn't the same McVeigh. He didn't go at things the way he normally did…. He didn't have the same drive. He didn't have his heart in the military anymore."^[177]

"He always wanted to do better than everyone," said Captain Terry Guild, "and that (Green Berets) was his way of trying to do it. He took a lot of flak. He was really down on himself."^[178]

McVeigh claimed "That's a bunch of bunk," in response to the allegations. "Any realist knows that if you develop blisters on the second day… you're not going to make it."^[179] [Still, the self-styled psychoanalysts of the mainstream press made much of his disappointment, asserting knowingly that it was the crux of McVeigh's "burgeoning torment."]

[Apparently, the "psychojournalists" at the Times had never bothered to check with officials at the SFAS school. "McVeigh dropped out of the course on the second day," said Colonel Ken McGraw, Information Officer at the Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg. "His psychological test work would not have even been graded yet."]

According to McVeigh's attorney Stephen Jones, his Army records indicate that his SFAS psychological tests weren't graded until April of 1995. The "military official" who leaked the story about McVeigh's "psychological test failure" turned out to be none other than FBI Agent John R. Hersley, who testified to this repeatedly during the Federal Grand Jury hearings. Apparently, Hersley never told the grand jurors that he was moonlighting as an Army psychologist.

Although McVeigh may have been genuinely disappointed by his initial failure, he added that the school's commander had invited the decorated war veteran to try out again whenever he felt he was ready. It seems McVeigh was not too disappointed to score a perfect 1,000 points during a Bradley gunner competition six months later at Fort Riley, earning him another Army commendation and the honor of the division's "Top Gun," a rare achievement. An Army evaluation also rated him "among the best" in leadership potential and an "inspiration to young soldiers."^[180]

Yet in spite of McVeigh's achievements, "a bit of doubt started to surface" in his mind about a potential for a career in the military.^[181] Although a friend said "I swear to God he could have been Sergeant Major of the Army — he was that good of a soldier," McVeigh apparently was having second thoughts. Most of these, his Army buddies said, stemmed from the military's downsizing then in progress. He also confided to his friend Dave Dilly that without being a Green Beret, the Army wouldn't be worth the effort. "I think he felt he got a raw deal, and wanted out," said Littleton.

Given McVeigh's achievements — his quick rise to sergeant, his medals of commendation, the distinction of being "Top Gun," and the extremely high praise of his superiors, one has to wonder what his real motives were. It seems highly unlikely that given the massive effort he put into his military career, he would take an early out on such presumptive pretenses. McVeigh was a spit and polish soldier with a top notch record. He was totally devoted to the military. He had served in combat, earning several medals. If anything he was due for his next promotion. The commander of the Special Forces school had even invited him to try out again in a few months. As Sheffield Anderson said, "He seemed destined for a brilliant career in the military."

These observations were backed up by McVeigh's sister Jennifer. "I thought it was going to be his career. He was definitely a career military type. That was his life, you know. His life revolved around that."

It hardly seems likely that the ambitious soldier who had recently signed on for another four year hitch would opt out so easily. Yet, on December 31, 1991, Sergeant McVeigh took an early discharge from the Army, and went back to his home town of Pendleton, NY.

The Manchurian Candidate

To fulfill his military obligation, McVeigh signed on with the Army National Guard in Buffalo, where he landed a job as a security guard with Burns International Security. McVeigh was assigned to the night shift, guarding the grounds of Calspan Research, a defense contractor that conducts classified research in advanced aerospace rocketry and electronic warfare.

In a manner mirroring his conduct in the service, McVeigh became the consummate security guard. Calspan spokesman Al Salandra told reporters that McVeigh was "a model employee." Yet according to media accounts, McVeigh had lost his confidence… and his cool.

"Timmy was a good guard," said former Burns supervisor Linda Haner-Mele. "He was "always there prompt, clean and neat. His only quirk," according to Mele, "was that he couldn't deal with people. If someone didn't cooperate with him, he would start yelling at them, become verbally aggressive. He could be set off easily.

According to an article in the Post, co-workers at a Niagara Falls convention center where he was assigned described him as "emotionally spent, veering from passivity to volcanic anger." An old friend said he looked "like things were really weighing on him."^[182]

"Timmy just wasn't the type of person who could initiate action," said Mele. "He was very good if you said, 'Tim watch this door — don't let anyone through.' The Tim I knew couldn't have masterminded something like this and carried it out himself. It would have had to have been someone who said: 'Tim, this is what you do. You drive the truck….'"

Mele's account directly contradicts the testimony of Sergeant Chris Barner and former Private Ray Jimboy, both of whom served with McVeigh at Fort Riley, and claimed that he was a natural leader.^[183] Backing up Jimboy was McVeigh's friend and Calspan co-worker, Carl Lebron, who described McVeigh as "intelligent and engaging — the sort of person who could be a leader."^[184]

Mele's testimony also contradicts McVeigh's service record, which rated him "among the best" in leadership potential and an "inspiration to young soldiers."^[185] "He had a lot of leadership ability inside himself," said Barner…. He had a lot of self confidence."

Apparently, "Something happened to Tim McVeigh between the time he left the Army and now," said Captain Terry Guild.

"He didn't really carry himself like he came out of the military," said Mele. "He didn't stand tall with his shoulders back. He kind of slumped over." She recalled him as silent, expressionless, with lightness eyes, but subject to explosive fits of temper. "That guy didn't have an expression 99 percent of the time," she added. "He was cold."^[186]

Colonel David Hackworth, an Army veteran who interviewed McVeigh for Newsweek, concluded that McVeigh was suffering from a "postwar hangover." "I've seen countless veterans, including myself, stumble home after the high-noon excitement of the killing fields, missing their battle buddies and the unique dangers and sense of purpose," wrote Hackworth. "Many lose themselves forever."^[187]

Although such symptoms may be seen as a delayed reaction syndrome resulting from the stress of battle, they are also common symptoms of mind-control. The subject of mind-control or hypnosis often seems emotionally spent, as though he had been through a harrowing ordeal.

While visiting friends in Decker, Michigan, McVeigh complained that the Army had implanted him with a miniature subcutaneous transmitter, so that they could keep track of him.^[188] He complained that it left an unexplained scar on his buttocks and was painful to sit on.^[189]

To the public, unfamiliar with the bewildering lexicon of government mind-control research, such a claim may appear as the obvious rantings of a paranoiac. But is it?

Miniaturized telemetrics have been part of an ongoing project by the military and various intelligence agencies to test the effectiveness of tracking soldiers on the battlefield. The miniature implantable telemetric device was declassified long ago. As far back as 1968, Dr. Stuart Mackay, in his textbook entitled Bio-Medical Telemetry, reported, "Among the many telemetry instruments being used today, are miniature radio transmitters that can be swallowed, carried externally, or surgically implanted in man or animal. They permit the simultaneous study of behavior and physiological functioning.…"^[190]

Dr. Carl Sanders, one of the developers of the Intelligence Manned Interface (IMI) biochip, maintains, "We used this with military personnel in the Iraq War where they were actually tracked using this particular type of device."^[191]

It is also interesting to note that the Calspan Advanced Technology Center in Buffalo (Calspan ATC), where McVeigh worked, is engaged in microscopic electronic engineering of the kind applicable to telemetrics.^[192] Calspan was founded in 1946 as Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, which included the "Fund for the Study of Human Ecology," a CIA conduit for mind-control experiments by émigré Nazi scientists [and others under the direction of CIA Doctors Sidney Gottlieb, Ewen Cameron, and Louis Jolyn West].

According to mind-control researcher Alex Constantine, "Calspan places much research emphasis on bioengineering and artificial intelligence (Calspan pioneered in the field in the 1950s)." In his article, "The Good Soldier," Constantine states:

Human tracking and monitoring technology are well within Calspan's sphere of pursuits. The company is instrumental in REDCAP, an Air Force electronic warfare system that winds through every Department of Defense facility in the country. A Pentagon release explains that REDCAP "is used to evaluate the effectiveness of electronic-combat hardware, techniques, tactics and concepts." The system "includes closed-loop radar and data links at RF manned data fusion and weapons control posts." One Patriot computer news board reported that a disembodied, rumbling, low-frequency hum had been heard across the country the week of the bombing. Past hums in Taos, NM, Eugene and Medford, OR, Timmons, Ontario and Bristol, UK were most definitely (despite specious official denials) attuned to the brain's auditory pathways….

The Air Force is among Calspan's leading clients, and Eglin AFB has farmed key personnel to the company. The grating irony — recalling McVeigh's contention he'd been implanted with a telemetry chip — is that the Instrumentation Technology Branch of Eglin Air Force Base is currently engaged in the tracking of mammals with subminiature telemetry devices. According to an Air Force press release, the biotelemetry chip transmits on the upper S-band (2318 to 2398 MHz), with up to 120 digital channels.

There is nothing secret about the biotelemetry chip. Ads for commercial [albeit somewhat simpler] versions of the device have appeared in national publications. Time magazine ran an ad for an implantable pet transceiver in its June 26, 1995 issue — ironically enough — opposite an article about a militia leader who was warning about the coming New World Order. While monitoring animals has been an unclassified scientific pursuit for decades, the monitoring of humans has been a highly classified project which is but a subset of the Pentagon's "nonlethal" arsenal. As Constantine notes, "the dystopian implications were explored by Defense News for March 20, 1995:

Naval Research Lab Attempts To Meld Neurons And Chips: Studies May Produce Army of "Zombies."

Future battles could be waged with genetically engineered organisms, such as rodents, whose minds are controlled by computer chips engineered with living brain cells.... The research, called Hippocampal Neuron Patterning, grows live neurons on computer chips. "This technology that alters neurons could potentially be used on people to create zombie armies," Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said.

It's conceivable, given the current state of the electronic mind-control art, a biocybernetic Oz over the black budget rainbow, that McVeigh had been drawn into an experimental project, that the device was the real McCoy….^[193]

The Defense Department newsletter may have been discussing is the successor to the "Stimoceiver," developed in the late 1950s by Dr. Joseph Delgado and funded by the CIA and the Office of Naval Research. The Stimoceiver is a tiny transceiver implanted in the head of a control subject, which can then be used to modify emotions and control behavior.

According to Delgado, "Radio Stimulation of different points in the amygdala and hippocampus [areas of the brain] in the four patients produced a variety of effects, including pleasant sensations, elation, deep, thoughtful concentration, odd feelings, super relaxation, colored visions, and other responses.... One of the possibilities with brain transmitters is to influence people so that they confirm with the political system. Autonomic and somatic functions, individual and social behavior, emotional and mental reactions may be invoked, maintained, modified, or inhibited, both in animals and in man, by stimulation of specific cerebral structures. Physical control of many brain functions is a demonstrated fact. It is even possible to follow intentions, the development of thought and visual experiences."^[194]

As Constantine points out, the military has a long and sordid history of using enlisted men and unwitting civilians for its nefarious experiments, ranging from radiation, poison gas, drugs and mind-control, to spraying entire U.S. cities with bacteriological viruses to test their effectiveness. The most recent example involves the use of experimental vaccines tested on Gulf War veterans who are currently experiencing bizarre symptoms, not the least of which is death. When attorneys representing the former soldiers requested their military medical files, they discovered there was no record of the vaccines ever being administered.^[195]

Timothy McVeigh may have unkowningly been an Army/CIA guinea pig involved in a classified telemetric/mind-control project — a "Manchurian Candidate."

Recent history is replete with cases of individuals who calmly walk into a restaurant, schoolyard, or post office and inexplicably begin shooting large numbers of people, as though they were in a trance. What appear like gruesome but happenstance events to the casual observer raises red flags to those familiar with CIA "sleeper" mind-control experiments. Such cases may be indicative of mind-control experiments gone horribly wrong.

A recent case occurred in Tasmania, where Martin Bryant calmly walked around a tourist site in May of 1996 methodically shooting and killing over 35 people. Interestingly, Bryant was in possession of an assault rifle that had been handed in to police in Victoria as part of a gun amnesty program, but mysteriously wound up in Bryant's hands before the massacre.^[196]

[An anti-social loner, Bryant had also recently returned from a solitary two-week trip to the U.S., ostensibly to visit "Disneyland." Australian Customs agents noticed he carried no luggage, and was acting strangely. They took him to the hospital to be examined as a possible drug courier, but found nothing. Had Bryant actually visited Disneyland, or had he visited a different type of playground — one inhabited by the mind-control masters of the CIA?

In the wake of the massacre, Australia underwent wholesale gun confiscation of its citizenry. Not surprisingly, Australia and New Zealand have long served as a playground for the CIA, who reportedly played a major role in the overthrow of Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, directed from the CIA's super-secret Pine Gap facility. It has also been reported that the CIA has been testing subliminal TV transmissions to influence the outcome of elections.^[197]]

As in Bryant's case, many of these bizarre killers meekly surrender to authorities after their sprees. When he was stopped by State Trooper Charles Hanger for a missing license plate, McVeigh was carrying a loaded Glock 9mm pistol. Although he could have easily shot and killed the officer, McVeigh informed him that he was carrying a concealed weapon, then meekly handed himself over for arrest. Why does a man who has just allegedly killed 169 innocent people, balk at killing a cop on a lonely stretch of highway? [This suggests that either McVeigh was innocent, was acting under orders by some branch of the government, or was under some form of mind-control.]

After McVeigh's arrest in Noble County, Assistant Attorney General Mark Gibson stated, "There stood a polite young man who gave polite, cooperative answers to every question. It was like the dutiful soldier," Gibson said. "Emotions don't come into play, right and wrong don't come into play. What happens next doesn't come into play… his mood was so level, it was unnatural. I looked at him and realized I felt no repulsion or fear. It was like there was an absence of feeling. He exuded nothing."

Charles Hanger, the officer who arrested McVeigh, related his account to Gibson, who told the Times, "And when he grabbed his gun and there was no reaction, no shock, that didn't seem right, either."^[198]

This "absence of feeling" among a man who had just allegedly committed a heinous crime may well have been indicative of a psychologically controlled agent — or "sleeper" agent — a person trained to carry out a preconceived order upon command. Such an individual could conceivably carry out a horrendous crime, then have no recollection of the event. Far from the stuff of spy novels or conspiracy theories, sleeper agents have been developed and used by intelligence agencies for decades.

[The CIA's interest in mind control originally dates back to WWII when the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), under Stanley Lovell, developed the idea of hypnotizing German prisoners to re-infiltrate the Third Reich and assassinate Adolph Hitler. After the war, the OSS, re-formed as the CIA, brought Nazi doctors and scientists to work for them under the cover of Operation PAPERCLIP. Some of these included war criminals spirited away through Nazi-Vatican "Ratlines" under the aegis of Operation OMEGA, conveniently missing their day in court at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. Their colleagues wound up in Central and South America, drained from the best of Nazi blood under Operation VAMPIRE.]

The CIA's plunge into the netherworld of mind-control began in 1950 with Project BLUEBIRD, authorized by Allen Dulles after it was discovered that recently released Korean War prisoners had been subjected to hypnosis. In 1952, BLUEBIRD was re-named Operation ARTICHOKE, under the authority of Deputy CIA Director Richard Helms, and coordinated by CIA Security Officer Shefield Edwards.

[By the late 1950s, the military was well on its way to investigating the potential for "brainwashing," a term coined by the CIA's Edward Hunter to explain the experience of American POWs in Korea. In 1958 the Rand Corporation produced a report for the Air Force entitled "The Use of Hypnosis in Intelligence and Related Military Situations," stating that "In defense applications, subjects can ce specifically selected by a criterion of hypnotizability, and subsequently trained in accordance with their anticipated military function..."^[199]]

Taking the Hippocratic Oath on behalf of the CIA for ARTICHOKE was Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, mind-control emeritus of the CIA's Technical Services Division (TSS), the real-life counterpart to the mythical "Q-Branch" of Ian Fleming fame. TSS was engaged developing the usual James Bond spy toys — miniature cameras, shooting fountain pens, and, under the tutelage of Dr. Gottlieb, poisons that could kill in seconds, leaving no trace. With Operation ARTICHOKE however, the CIA broadened its horizons into the realm of psychological warfare. ARTICHOKE was one of the CIA's later-day attempts to create an electronically-controlled Manchurian Candidate.

In the 1950s, under the code name MKULTRA, the CIA set up safe houses in San Francisco and other cities where they performed experiments on unwitting subjects using LSD and other drugs. In 1960, Edwards recruited ex-FBI agent Robert Maheu, who approached Mob bosses Sam Giancana and John Rosselli to form CIA hit-teams to assassinate foreign leaders using the techniques acquired by Gottlieb's TSS. [The first on their list was Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who they planned to assassinate by poisoning his food and even his cigars. The work of Gottlieb and his CIA associates can be traced directly back to Nazi war criminals such as Dr. Joseph Mengele of Auschwitz.]

By 1963, reported the Senate Intelligence Committee, the number of operations and subjects had increased substantially. But as far back as 1960, TSS officials, working along with the Counterintelligence staff, had expanded their hypnosis programs to coincide with their MKULTRA experiments. According to John Marks in his book The Search for the Manchurian Candidate, "the Counterintelligence program had three goals: (1) to induce hypnosis very rapidly in unwitting subjects; (2) to create durable amnesia; and (3) to implant durable and operationally useful posthypnotic suggestion."

By 1966, MKULTRA had spawned Operation MKSEARCH, the use of biological, chemical, and radiological substances to induce psychological and physiological changes in the CIA's victims. MKSEARCH spawned Operations OFTEN and CHICKWIT, using biological, chemical, and radiological substances to induce psychological and physiological changes. Operations THIRD CHANCE and DERBY HAT involved the Army's Military Intelligence Group's (M.I.G.) surreptitious dosing of victims in Europe and the Far East. MKDELTA, an offshoot of MKULTRA, involved spraying massive doses of LSD and other drugs by the Army over areas inhabited by Viet Cong.^[200]

[The preeminent don of the CIA's psychological warfare program was Dr. Louis Jolyn West. As part of his MKULTRA experiments, West decided to send an elephant at the Oklahoma City Zoo on an LSD trip. Apparently, the poor creature did not appreciate the effects of Dr. West's Magical Mystery Tour. It died several hours later.

A close associate of Drs. Cameron and Gottlieb, West studied the use of drugs as "adjuncts to interpersonal manipulation or assault," and was among one of the pioneers of remote electronic brain experimentation, including telemetric brain implants on unwitting subjects.

West's good friend, Aldous Huxley, suggested that he hypnotize his subjects before administering LSD, in order to give them post-hypnotic suggestions which would orient the drug-induced experience in a "desired direction."

Interestingly, West was the psychiatrist who examined Jack Ruby, the assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby's assertion that an ultra-Right-wing cabal was responsible for JFK's murder, and his refusal to admit insanity, led West to conclude that he was paranoid and mentally ill. West placed Ruby on anti-depressants, which did little to modify his claims of conspiracy. He died of cancer two years later, claiming to the end that he had been injected with cancerous biological material.

West also examined Sirhan Sirhan, a controlled hypo-patsy who allegedly killed Robert F. Kennedy. Currently chairman of UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute, West headed the American Psychological Association (APA) trauma response team that rushed to Oklahoma City in the wake of the disaster.

I interviewed Dr. West by phone. While confirming that he had indeed traveled to Oklahoma City with his team, the eminent psychiatrist made a curious "Freudian Slip." When asked if he had examined McVeigh, he said, "No, I haven't been asked to do that. I think his lawyer wouldn't want someone he didn't trus… pick."^[201]

West nevertheless told me that someone from the FBI's Behavioral Sciences unit would have interviewed McVeigh. In fact the FBI's Behavioral Sciences unit did interview the prisoner. John Douglas of the FBI's Psychological Profile Unit was later quoted in the Times as saying, "This is an easily controlled and manipulated personality." What Douglas is unwittingly confirming is that McVeigh was perfect material for the CIA's psychological mind-control program.

By the late 1950s, many German or Eastern European émigrés brought to work in the U.S. had been farmed out to universities such as Cornell, UCLA, and Stanford… and to people like Dr. Ewen Cameron and Dr. Jolyn West.^[202]

In the wake of the 1965 Watts riot, West proposed to then California Governor Ronald Reagan a "Center for the Study and Reduction of Violence," which was to have included a psychosurgery unit for performing lobotomies, and a seven-day-a-week, around-the-clock electro-shock room. Associates of Dr. Cameron's, employed at the time in Nazi-run detention centers in South America, would be called on to perform lobotomies on unsuspecting patients, with the full approval of Governor Reagan.^[203]

One of the more brazen of the emerging coterie of brainwashing enthusiasts, Cameron received his funding through the Rockefeller and Gerschickter Foundations, which was channeled into the innocuous sounding Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology at Cornell. Cameron performed hundreds of lobotomies and electroshock treatments at the behest of the CIA on unwitting patients in prisons and mental hospitals, and at his beloved Allen Memorial Institute in Montreal.^[204]

It is interesting to note that McVeigh claimed he was subjected to psychological torture while in prison.^[205] He was placed in a cell with a guard watching him around the clock, who wasn't allowed to speak to him. The lights in his cell were kept on 24-hours-a-day, depriving him of sleep — a standard technique designed to break down a subject's psychological barriers. Eventually, McVeigh called in a psychiatrist to help treat his anxiety — a psychiatrist, perhaps, trained by Dr. Cameron.]

CIA psychiatrist Dr. Ewen Cameron was also the progenitor of "psychic driving," a technique whereby the psychiatrist or controller repeatedly plays back selected words or phrases to break down a person's psychological barriers and open up his unconscious.^[206] Such techniques would be eagerly incorporated into the CIA's program for creating Manchurian Candidates — programmed hypno-killers who could be unleashed at the behest of the Agency to kill upon command. An account of the discussion surrounding the creation of a Manchurian Candidate is revealed by JFK researcher Dick Russell in his book, The Man Who Knew Too Much:

In 1968, Dr. Joseph L. Bern of Virginia Polytechnic Institute questioned authorities on hypnosis about whether the creation of a "Manchurian Candidate" was really feasible. As Author Bowart recounted one expert's response to Dr. Bernd: "I would say that a highly skilled hypnotist, working with a highly susceptible subject, could possibly persuade the subject to kill another human…" Another believed it was even possible, through posthypnotic suggestion, to make a subject unable to recall such an act: "There could be a conspiracy, but a conspiracy of which the principal was unaware."^[207]

This "psychic driving" appears to have impacted Sirhan Sirhan. Charles McQuiston, a former Army intelligence officer who did a Psychological Stress Evaluation of voice recordings of Sirhan, said, "I believe Sirhan was brainwashed under hypnosis by the constant repetition of words like, 'You are nobody, you're nothing, the American dream is gone'.… Somebody implanted an idea, kill RFK, and under hypnosis the brainwashed Sirhan accepted it."^[208] The accused assassin insisted that he couldn't recall even the murder.

CIA contract agent Colonel William Bishop explained to Russell some of the rudiments of the CIA's mind-control operations:

"There were any number of psychological or emotional factors involved in peoples' selection. Antisocial behavior patterns, paranoia or the rudiments of paranoia, and so on. But when they are successful with this programming — or, for lack of a better term, indoctrination — they could take John Doe and get this man to kill George and Jane Smith. He will be given all the pertinent information as to their location, daily habits, etc. Then there is a mental block put on this mission in his mind. He remembers nothing about it."^[209]

On March 3, 1964, CIA Director John McCone sent a memo to Secret Service chief James Rowley stating that after his surgery at the hospital in Minsk, [Russia], Oswald might have been "chemically or electronically 'controlled'… a sleeper agent. Subject spent 11 days hospitalized for a minor ailment which should have required no more than three days hospitalization at best."^[210]

Even J. Edgar Hoover told the Warren Commission, "Information came to me indicating that there is an espionage training school outside of Minsk — I don't know whether it is true — that he [Oswald] was trained at that school to come back to this country to become what they call a 'sleeper,' that is, a man who will remain dormant for three or four years and in case of international hostilities rise up and be used."^[211]

[According to JFK researchers Art Ford and Lincoln Lawrence in their book, Were We Controlled?, Lee Harvey Oswald was a programmed assassin with a malfunctioning electrical implant in his brain.^[212] Herman Kimsey, A veteran Army counterintelligence operative and former CIA official, told JFK researcher Hugh MacDonald, "Oswald was programmed to kill…. Then the mechanism went on the blink and Oswald became a dangerous toy without direction."^[213]]

The CIA's interest in producing the perfect programmed assassin took a new bent, when in 1965, the Agency, in cooperation with the DoD, set up a secret program for studying the effects of electromagnetic radiation, or microwave (EM) weapons at the Army's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. The project was inspired by the Soviets, who had been dousing the American Embassy in Moscow with a lethal dose of microwaves, causing many of its personnel to die from cancer.^[214]

Yet causing degenerative diseases was not the main goal of the DoD/CIA EM weapons research, code named PANDORA. The spooks were interested in the effects of microwaves on controlling a person's behavior. By 1973, both the Americans and the Soviets were far along in their mind-control applications, using technology such as pulsed microwave audiograms and acoustical telemetry to create voices in a subject's mind, or erase his mind completely.^[215]]

Causing degenerative diseases was not the main goal of the DoD/CIA EM weapons research, code named PANDORA. The spooks were interested in the effects of microwaves on controlling a person's behavior. By 1973, both the Americans and the Soviets were far along in their mind-control applications, using technology such as pulsed microwave audiograms and acoustical telemetry to create voices in a subject's mind, or erase his mind completely.^[216] With the advent of EM technology, scientists could bypass the need for electrodes implanted in the brain, and control their subjects directly. Lawrence described a technology called RHIC-EDOM, or "Radio Hypnotic Intracerebral Control and Electronic Dissolution of Memory." According to Lawrence:

It is the ultra-sophisticated application of post-hypnotic suggestion triggered at will by radio transmission. It is a recurring state, re-induced automatically at intervals by the same radio control. An individual is brought under hypnosis. This can be done either with his knowledge — or without it — by use of narco-hypnosis, which can be brought into play under many guises. He is then programmed to perform certain actions and maintain certain attitudes upon radio signal.

Lawrence went on to state that "through the use of radio-waves and ultra-sonic signal tones… It in effect blocks memory of the moment."^[217] "Such a device has obvious applications in covert operations designed to drive a target crazy with 'voices' or deliver undetected instructions to a programmed assassin," states Dr. Robert Becker.^[218]

Thane Eugene Cesar, a reported accomplice in the murder of Robert Kennedy, held a vaguely-defined job at Lockheed, a CIA/PANDORA contractor. Retired Lockheed engineer Jim Yoder told former FBI agent William Turner that Cesar worked floating assignments in an "off-limits" area operated by the CIA.^[219] The parallel is strikingly similar to that of Timothy McVeigh, who worked at Calspan, another high-tech military contractor engaged in top-secret telemetric work.

The preeminent don of CIA's psychological warfare program (MKULTRA), Dr. Louis Jolyon "Jolly" West, sent an Oklahoma City Zoo elephant careening on a massive LSD trip, triggering its death hours later. Studying the use of drugs as "adjuncts to interpersonal manipulation or assault," Jolly West was among the pioneers of remote electronic brain experimentation on unwitting subjects. Aldous Huxley passed on the idea to West that he hypnotize subjects before administering LSD, orienting drug-induced experience toward a "desired direction."

West was given the job of examining Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald's killer. Ruby's refusal to admit insanity, and his belief that a right-wing cabal was responsible for JFK's murder, led West to conclude Ruby was mentally ill, the proper candidate for anti-depressants. Ruby died of cancer two years after the exam, claiming to have been injected with malignant biological material. West also examined Sirhan Sirhan, [who may have been] a hypno-patsy jailed for murdering Robert Kennedy.

On March 31, less than three weeks before the bombing, McVeigh appeared at the Imperial Motel in Kingman. For the next 12 days, according to owner Helmut Hofer, he just sat there, emerging only for meals or to pay his bill. He had no visitors, made few phone calls, and barely disturbed the furnishings. No one ever heard his television, and his car never moved from its spot outside.^[220]

"That's the funny thing," said Hofer. "He didn't go out. He didn't make phone calls. He didn't do anything. He just sat up there and brooded."

["He always had been a brooder…" added the Times, throwing a bit of instant psychoanalysis on the situation.^[221]]

To Earline Roberts, the housekeeper at the Oak Cliff rooming house where Oswald stayed just prior to the assassination, "Mr. Lee" probably seemed like a brooder too, staying in his room, having no visitors and never socializing.^[222]

Yet it is unlikely that McVeigh simply rented a room at the Imperial for 12 days to brood. Like Oswald, McVeigh was probably told to wait somewhere until he was contacted. Perhaps it was a pre-arranged date; perhaps he was waiting for a phone call; or perhaps McVeigh was simply put on ice, waiting to be activated by some sort of signal. It is possible McVeigh's anger at the Federal Government was stoked by a more mysterious enemy, one that he couldn't see or feel… but hear.

One of the most famous documented cases of "hearing voices" was that of Dennis Sweeny, the student activist who shot and killed his mentor Allard Lowenstein. Lowenstein, who marched in the 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi, had campaigned for Robert Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson, and ran the National Student Association before the CIA took over. Lowenstein, who was also friends with CIA propagandist William F. Buckley, had attempted to prove that a great conspiracy was responsible for the deaths of Martin Luther King and the Kennedys. (At the time he was assassinated, he was helping Ted Kennedy win the 1980 presidential election.)^[223]

One fine day, Sweeny calmly walked into the middle of Rockefeller Center and pumped seven bullets into his mentor. He then sat down, lit a cigarette, and waited for the police to arrive. "Sweeny claimed that the CIA, with Lowenstein's help, had implanted a telemetric chip in his head 15 years earlier, and had made his life an unbearable torment. Voices were transmitted through his dental work, he said, and he attempted to silence them by filing down his false teeth. Sweeny blamed CIA "controllers" for his uncle's heart attack and the assassination of San Francisco mayor George Moscone."^[224]

Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk met their deaths at the hands the infamous "Twinkie" assassin — former City Supervisor Dan White. White earned the curious title due his attorney's novel defense — that his client was under the influence of a heavy dose of sugar at the time of the murders. More likely, White was under the influence of a heavy dose of hypnosis.

Like McVeigh, White had been in the military, serving a tour of duty in Vietnam. After leaving the police department in 1972, White took an extended vacation since known as White's "missing year."

"He broke all contact with friends and family. He kept no records of the trip, purchased no travel tickets, did not use a credit card. He later accounted for his mystery year by explaining that he'd worked a stint as a security guard in Alaska."

White subsequently moved back to San Francisco, where joined the Fire Department. Like McVeigh, White's work record was untarnished, though like the enigmatic soldier, he was known to erupt in embarrassing temper tantrums. As Constantine writes in The Good Soldier:

While campaigning for the Board of Supervisors, he spoke as if he was "programmed," according to local labor leader Stan Smith. During Board sessions, he was known to slip into spells of silence punctuated by goose-stepping walks around the Supervisors' chambers.^[225]

One of the more recent cases of murder by suggestion was the assassination of Naval Commander Edward J. Higgins. Higgins was shot five times in the Pentagon parking lot by Carl Campbell, who claimed that the CIA had implanted a microchip in him that controlled his mind.^[226]

To those who believe that such electronically-manipulated scenarios are the stuff of fantasy, they should take note that no less than three support groups currently exist in the U.S. to deal with the trauma of military and intelligence agency brainwashing.

Yet the hypnosis and drugging of adults is not by far the worst example of the CIA's nefarious efforts at developing programmed assassins. Other efforts involve the use of children, programmed while they are still young (See the "Finders" case), and the use of cults, often run by former military and intelligence officers. The use of cults provides a convenient cover for experiments that could not otherwise be conducted out in the open. Any resultant behavioral anomalies can then simply be attributed to the peculiarities of the "cult."^[227]

One program for the recruitment of programmed operatives is called Operation OPEN EYES. According to a former Navy Intelligence officer and SEAL team leader attached to the CIA, "Clear Eyes" are the programmed victims of OPEN EYES. The operation involves canvassing the country for individuals who have few close friends or relatives. They are then put under a progressive series of gradually intensified hypnosis, where the subject's personality is "overwritten."

At level four, diverse programs can be written or overwritten into the brain. Any command is accepted at this level. At that level you can give the test subject a complete personality, history and make him/her believe anything the program requires for the accomplishment of any desired project. He is then given a new life in a new state and town. Driver's license, car, bank account, passport, credit cards, B.C., and all the small things, such as photos of his family (that don't really exist). Subject and patient (one and the same) has now an agenda (that he believes is his own) and is prepared for level five hypnosis. At this stage, very carefully a code work or sequence of numbers or a voice imprint is etched into his brain. That is commonly known and referred to as the trigger that will activate subject to action.

He then lives a very normal and sometimes useful life, until subject is required to perform the program implanted/written into level four hypnosis at the point of activating the trigger, subject is beyond recall. That's why a level five person can only be approached after his/her operation. There is no actual recall in the subconscious program of any of the hypnosis. If an act of violence had been perpetrated, subject will not be able to associate with the deed. Only shrinks trained in this particular form of sub mental behavior will find any tracks leading to post level one or two mind-control.

I have personally witnessed level one to five programming, and was myself subject of level three programming.

Due to the fact that subject has such high IQ (preferably around 130-140 subject is very quick to learn anything fed to him/her. All major patriot groups, and normal workers and workers in big [government contract] corporations have at least one or more "sleepers" attached to them.

Now it must be clear to you the various levels used by the intel community to get their job done. Remember Jonestown? It was one of ours that went sour because a Clear Eyes was in the group. When he began firing on the runway, it all self destructed. The man (Congressman Leo Ryan) who was killed, knew it was a government operation. Clear Eyes was accidentally — through a lone sequence — activated! There was no way to stop the killings. They were all programmed to at least level three, the culties themselves. There were only three deaths attributable to cyanide, the rest died of gunfire. Now you know a little more about our line of work. I am glad I am out of it.^[228]

An ex-CIA agent interviewed by researcher Jim Keith claims to have knowledge of biological warfare testing and "special medical and Psy-ops (psychological operations) facilities at Fort Riley," where Timothy McVeigh was stationed. (Recall that McVeigh took a Psy-ops course at Ft. Riley) This agent stated that experimentation is conducted "in collaboration with the whole range of intelligence agencies, FBI, CIA, NSA, the works." The agent also told Keith that he had witnessed special psychological operations performed on the crew of the Pueblo naval vessel at Fort Riley, and at Fort Benning, Georgia (where did his basic training), prior to the ship's capture under mysterious circumstances by the North Koreans. Fort Benning is also home to the notorious School of the America's, where the CIA and the Special Forces have trained Latin American death squad leaders for over three decades. Fort Riley was also home to a mysterious plague of murders and shootings right around the time of the Oklahoma City bombing. On March 2, 1995, PFC Maurice Wilford shot three officers with a 12-gauge shotgun before turning the gun on himself. On April 6, Brian Soutenburg was found dead in his quarters after an apparent suicide.^[229]

Is it possible these incidents were the result of some psychological testing or experiment gone awry? Given the Army's opprobrious history of psychological research and covert experiments on its own personnel, it is not inconceivable. The incidents seem indicative of the shooting death of Commander Edward J. Higgins by Carl Campbell, who claimed he was implanted with a microchip.

[It is interesting to note that] after his arrest, McVeigh was taken to Tinker Air Force Base. Why he would be taken to a military installation is unclear. Perhaps Dr. West was on hand, waiting to see whether McVeigh's microchip was still snug. Was Timothy McVeigh in fact manipulated through the use of a subcutaneous transceiver, implanted in him without his knowledge? Was he a "sleeper agent," programmed to do a dirty deed and have no memory of it afterwards? Interestingly, Richard Condon's classic play, The Manchurian Candidate made its debut in Oklahoma City exactly one year after the bombing. It is possible the real Manchurian candidate made his debut on April 19, 1995. Given the long and sordid history of Pentagon/CIA mind-control operations, such a scenario is certainly possible.^[230]

What's also possible is that McVeigh was simply lied to. Someone — whom McVeigh thought was working for the government, gave him a cover story — convinced him that he was on an important, top secret mission. McVeigh's seeming indifference upon his arrest may simply have been indicative of his understanding that he was working for this agency, had simply delivered a truck as he was told, and had not, in fact, killed anyone.

[It is possible that] McVeigh was concerned about military cut-backs when he quit the Army in December of 1991. It is possible that his increased job duties were the reason he quit the National Guard in June of 1992. It is also possible, highly probable in fact, that he was secretly offered a more lucrative career — one that promised more excitement, adventure, and money… in the intelligence services.

To the intelligence community, Timothy McVeigh would have been exactly what they were looking for — a top-notch but impressionable young soldier who is patriotic and gung-ho to a fault. A taciturn individual who follows orders without hesitation, and who knows when to keep his mouth shut, a prerequisite of any good intelligence operative.

According to former CIA agent Victor Marchetti, the CIA currently does its most "fruitful" recruiting in the armed forces.^[231] Intelligence agencies regularly recruit from the military, and military files are routinely reviewed for potential candidates — those who have proven their willingness and ability to kill on command and without hesitation — those whose combat training and proficiency with weapons make them excellent candidates for field operations. McVeigh had already taken the Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) Course while he was at Fort Riley. Whether he knew it or not, McVeigh was well on his was way to a career in covert intelligence. An intelligence agency wouldn't have to search hard for a man like McVeigh. His above-average military record, and the fact that he was a candidate for the Special Forces, would have made him a natural choice. Especially his try-out for Special Forces. The Special Forces were created as the covert military arm of the Central Intelligence Agency. According to Lt. Colonel Daniel Marvin (Ret.), "almost all of the independent operations within the Green Berets were run by the CIA"^[232]

Moreover, McVeigh was just beginning to espouse militia-type views. This observation, and the fact that he was racist, would have made him a perfect operative to infiltrate any far right-wing or white supremacist group. Likewise it would have made him the perfect patsy to implicate in connection with any right-wing group.

[As Dave Dilly told the Post, "The militias really recruit, and he's exactly what they're looking for.… They could catch him easy. He had all the same interests as them; they're just a little more fanatical."

What Dilly is describing to the letter, although he is unaware of it, is the modus operandi of the intelligence community. If McVeigh was recruited by one of the intelligence branches, it is possible that he was recruited by someone posing as a militia member. As far as fanatics go, there is no one group of people more fanatical than the "lunatic fringe" of the intelligence community. In short, McVeigh] possessed all the qualities that would have made him an excellent undercover operative… and a perfect fall-guy.

In May of 1992, McVeigh was promoted to lieutenant at Burns Security, and wrote his National Guard commander that his civilian job required his presence. "But the letter was real vague," said his commander. "It didn't say just what this new job was." Approximately nine months later, when McVeigh was going to be promoted to supervisor, he suddenly quit, saying that he had "more pressing matters to attend to."

Just what these "pressing matters" were is not exactly clear. According to co-worker Carl Lebron, McVeigh told him he was leaving to take a civilian position with the Army in Kentucky painting trucks. He later told Lebron that he became privy to a top-secret project at Calspan called "Project Norstar," which, according to McVeigh, involved bringing drugs into the country via miniature submarine. He told his friend that he was afraid that those responsible for Project Norstar were "coming after him," and he had to leave.

While this explanation may strike one as bizarre, McVeigh wrote his sister Jennifer while he was still in the Army telling her that he had been picked for a highly specialized Special Forces Covert Tactical Unit (CTU) that was involved in illegal activities. The letter was introduced to the Federal Grand Jury. According to former grand juror Hoppy Heidelberg, these illegal activities included "protecting drug shipments, eliminating the competition, and population control." While all the details of the letter aren't clear, Heidelberg said that there were five to six duties in all, and that the group was comprised of ten men.

Such units are nothing new. During the Vietnam War, CIA Director William Colby and Saigon Station Chief Ted Shackley (who also ran a massive heroin smuggling operation) created what they called Provincial Reconnaissance Units (PRUs), which would capture, torture, and kill suspected Viet Cong leaders.^[233]

Former Army CID investigator Gene Wheaton also described a covert unit created by the highly secretive NRO (National Reconnaissance Office), which used assassination and torture to eliminate so-called enemies of the state. In 1985, Wheaton was approached by "security consultants" to Vice President Bush's "Task Force on Combating Terrorism" who were working for USMC Lt. Colonel Oliver North (who served under Shackley in Vietnam) and Associate Deputy FBI Director Oliver "Buck" Revell. "They wanted me to help create a 'death squad' that would have White House deniability to assassinate people they would identify as 'terrorists,'" said Wheaton.

Code-named "Zeta Diogenes" in the USAF subset, this secret project, according to Wheaton, "was created in a rage by the covert intelligence leadership after the failed Bay-of-Pigs operation against Cuba in 1961." Wheaton claims the program continues to the present day.^[234]

Anyone who prefers to think that agencies of the U.S. government are above assassinating U.S. citizens, not to mention senior U.S. officials where expedient, may wish to bear in mind the following testimony given by Colonel Daniel Marvin, a highly decorated Special Forces Vietnam veteran. While going through Special Forces training at Fort Bragg in 1964, Marvin's group was asked if any members would like to volunteer to take special assassination training on behalf of the CIA, eliminating Americans overseas who posed "national security risks." About six people, himself included, volunteered.

"The CIA had agents there all the time at Fort Bragg, in the Special Warfare Center Headquarters," said Marvin. "My commanding officer, Colonel C.W. Patton, called me up to his office one day in the first week… and he said, "Dan, go out and meet the 'Company' man standing there underneath the pine trees, waiting to talk to you."

Ironically, Marvin had been motivated to join the Special Forces by the death of President Kennedy, who had conferred upon the unit their distinctive and coveted green berets. Marvin began his assassination training in the Spring of 1964. "…during one of the coffee breaks, I overheard one of the [CIA] instructors say to the other one, 'Well, it went pretty well in Dallas. Didn't it?'"

Marvin said his group was shown "16 millimeter moving pictures that we assumed were taken by the CIA of the assassination, on the ground there at Dallas.… We were told that there were actually four shooters. There was one on the roof of the lower part of the Book Depository, and there was one shooter who was in front of and to the right of the vehicle. And I'm not sure whether it was on the Grassy Knoll area that they were speaking of, or, as some people have reported, [a shooter firing] out of a manhole to the right-front of the vehicle."

He also added that there were two additional snipers with spotters stationed on the routes that the motorcade would have used to travel to the hospital. If the spotter determined that Kennedy had survived, he was to finish him off.

["They used the assassination of President Kennedy as a prime example of how to develop the strategy for the assassination of a world leader as a conspiracy, while making it look like some 'lone nut' did it.…

"The stronger a patriot you are, the more important it is to you that you do whatever is necessary for your flag, for your country," he adds. "It makes you the most susceptible type of person for this kind of training. You are the ultimate warrior. You're out there to do for your country what nobody else is willing to do. I had no qualms about it at all."]

Marvin claimed his "assassination" training was reserved solely for citizens outside the United States, not on U.S. soil. "The Mafia lists were the ones being used [to kill Americans] in the continental United States," said Marvin. "We were being used overseas." That was, until he was asked to kill an American Naval officer — Lt. Commander William Bruce Pitzer, the X-ray technician who filmed the Kennedy autopsy, "as he was, supposedly, a traitor, about to give secrets to the enemy. It turned out that these 'secrets' were the photos of the real autopsy of President John F. Kennedy. And the 'enemy' was us!"^[235]

When he found out that his assignment was to be conducted in the U.S., he refused. "…that wasn't my mission," said Marvin. "When I took my training, I volunteered to do this kind of thing overseas where it could be covered, as far as the family goes. I had a wife and three children. If I were to accept that mission to kill Commander Pitzer right here in the United States, I would have been dropped from the rolls immediately as a deserter so that it would cover me for taking off and taking care of that mission.…"^[236][237]

Such a "cover" tactic appears to closely parallel that of Timothy McVeigh, who "dropped out" of Special Forces training before embarking on his bewildering and mysterious journey (ala: Dan White) prior to the bombing.

Still another, more well-documented reference to such illegal operations is made by Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Kwitny in his best-selling book, The Crimes of Patriots. Kwitny describes how rogue CIA agents Edwin Wilson (who reported to Shackley) and Frank Terpil were not only illegally selling huge quantities of C-4 plastic explosives and sophisticated assassination gear to the Libyans, but were actually hiring anti-Castro Cubans from Shackley's old JM/WAVE program, and U.S. Green Berets to assassinate Qaddafi's political opponents abroad. (See Chapter 14)

Some U.S. Army men were literally lured away from the doorway of Fort Bragg, their North Carolina training post. The GIs were given every reason to believe that the operation summoning them was being carried out with the full backing of the CIA.…^[238]

Could this be the same group McVeigh claims he was recruited for? Considering the allegations of the Federal Government against McVeigh, the fact that he was chosen for such a clandestine and blatantly illegal government-sponsored operation is highly revealing.

According to Heidelberg's account of the letter, McVeigh turned them down. "They picked him because he was gung-ho," said Heidelberg. "But they misjudged him. He was gung-ho, but in a sincere way. He really loved his country."^[239]

In another version of the story reported by Ted Gunderson, an intelligence informant indicated that McVeigh was "trained to work for the CIA in their illegal drug operations," then "became disenchanted with the government, and voiced his displeasure." At that point he was sent to Fort Riley for discharge, at which point John Doe 2 "was planted on him" and "orchestrated the bombing." According to Gundersen's informant, McVeigh was a victim of the CIA's mind-control project, Project MONARCH.^[240]

Whether McVeigh turned down this illegal covert operations group, or worked for them for a short time, it is highly likely that he was working in some fashion for the government. There is simply no logical explanation for his giving up a hard-earned and brilliant military career, then subsequently quitting his security guard job on the eve of his promotion to take a job painting old army trucks, or go tooling around the country in a beat-up car hawking used firearms and militia paraphernalia.

If McVeigh was recruited, his "opting out" of the military was most likely a cover story for that recruitment. Former Pentagon counter-intelligence officer Robert Gambert told Kennedy assassination researcher Dick Russell of the mysterious activities of his cousin Richard Case Nagell, "Dick played the role of a disgruntled ex-Army officer…. he was really still operational, in an undercover capacity, for the Army Intelligence…. They're not gonna' trust anybody who's active military or a friendly retiree. They're gonna trust somebody who's going around griping against the military, against the intelligence operations, against the government…."^[241]

After McVeigh's mysterious departure from the Army, his friend Robin Littleton received a strange letter from him. On it was illustrated a cartoon depicting a skull and crossbones with the caption "so many victims, so little time."^[242] Whether he meant it as a joke, or whether it contained a hidden message, is unclear. But considering the letter he wrote to Jennifer regarding the CTU, its implications are unsettling.

A patriotic soldier like Timothy McVeigh didn't have a lot of reasons to gripe against the government. But, said the Post: "McVeigh was by now railing at virtually every aspect of American government, and at least beginning to consider a violent solution, as reflected in letters he wrote to the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal in February and March 1992, (entitled 'America Faces Problems.')"^[243]

Crime is out of control. Criminals have no fear of punishment. Prisons are overcrowded so they know they will not be imprisoned long. This breeds more crime, in an escalating cyclic pattern.

Taxes are a joke. Regardless of what a political candidate "promises," they will increase. More taxes are always the answer to government mismanagement. They mess up, we suffer. Taxes are reaching cataclysmic levels, with no slowdown in sight.

The "American Dream" of the middle class has all but disappeared, substituted with people struggling just to buy next week's groceries. Heaven forbid the car breaks down!

Politicians are further eroding the "American Dream" by passing laws which are supposed to be a "quick fix," when all they are really designed for is to get the official re-elected. These laws tend to "dilute" a problem for a while, until the problem comes roaring back in a worsened form (much like a strain of bacteria will alter itself to defeat a known medication).

Politicians are out of control. Their yearly salaries are more than an average person will see in a lifetime. They have been entrusted with the power to regulate their own salaries and have grossly violated that trust to live in their own luxury.

Racism on the rise? You had better believe it! Is this America's frustrations venting themselves? Is it a valid frustration? Who is to blame for the mess? At a point when the world has seen Communism falter as an imperfect system to manage people; democracy seems to be headed down the same road. No one is seeing the "big" picture.

Maybe we have to combine ideologies to achieve the perfect utopian government. Remember, government-sponsored health care was a Communist idea. Should only the rich be allowed to live long? Does that say that because a person is poor, he is a lesser human being; and doesn't deserve to live as long, because he doesn't wear a tie to work?

What is it going to take to open up the eyes of our elected officials? America is in serious decline!

We have no proverbial tea to dump; should we instead sink a ship full of Japanese imports? Is a Civil War imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn't come to that! But it might.

Naturally, an ordinary gripe letter written by a person with above-average intelligence and political awareness was turned into a manifestation of suppressed frustrations with attendant violent overtones by the psychojournalists of the mainstream press. Yet, if McVeigh was under the influence of some form of mind-control, it is possible the letter, and the one to Littleton, might have been the beginnings of a plan to "sheep-dip" McVeigh as a disgruntled ex-military man.^[244]

It is also possible that McVeigh, tasked with the responsibility of infiltrating the Militia Movement, became genuinely enamored with its ideals and precepts. Whether or not this is true, McVeigh's letter to the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal and to Robin Littleton were two more nails the government and the press would use to drive into McVeigh's coffin.

But the major nails in McVeigh's coffin were yet to come.

The Man Who Didn't Exist

In September of 1992 McVeigh sold his property in Olean, NY, and in early 1993 traveled to Kingman, Arizona to visit his old Army friend Michael Fortier. Apparently McVeigh's father didn't approve of Tim's letters in the local paper. A friend of McVeigh's father told the Post that one of the reasons McVeigh left was because "he wanted to be somewhere he could talk about what he really believed."

In Kingman, a rugged high-desert town where anti-government sentiments run strong, McVeigh would find like-minded souls. "Arizona is still gun-on-the-hip territory, rugged individuals who don't like the government in their business," said Marilyn Hart, manager of the Canyon West Mobile Park.

After spending a brief time living with Fortier at his trailer home on East McVicar Road, McVeigh rented a trailer at Canyon West where he lived from June to September of 1993, for $250-a-month.

The Times, the Post, Time and Newsweek all reported that McVeigh was a belligerent beer-drinking, loud music-playing slob who stayed at the Canyon West Mobile Park and was subsequently evicted. According to the Times:

Residents of the Canyon West Mobile Park drew a picture of an arrogant loner who worked as a security guard for a now-defunct trucking company, lived with his pregnant girlfriend, expressed deep anger against the Federal Government and often caused trouble for his neighbors. "He drank a lot of beer and threw out the cans, and I always had to pick them up," Bob Rangin, owner of the park, was quoted as saying. He said he had frequent fights with Mr. McVeigh, who often wore Army fatigues, over such things as loud rock music coming from his trailer and a dog he kept in violation of his lease.^[245]

"Just about any free time, he'd be walking down there, or across the railroad tracks and firing his guns," said Marilyn Hart, nodding at the landscape of canyons and mesas around the Canyon West trailer park here that is one of the last known addresses of the man arrested for bombing the Oklahoma City Federal Building. "He just plain didn't care. Didn't matter the time of day or night, he'd be out there shooting."

"Basically he just had a poor attitude, a chip on the shoulder kind of thing," said Rob Rangin, the owner of the trailer park. "He was very cocky. He looked like he was ready to get in a fight pretty easy. I'll tell you, I was a little afraid of him and I'm not afraid of too many people.

Mr. McVeigh brought in a big brown dog in defiance of the camp regulations and left a wrecked car parked by his trailer, Mr. Rangin said, and even a nearly totally deaf neighbor, Clyde Smith, complained about the music. Finally, said Mr. Rangin, "he piled up so many violations, I asked him to leave."

"When he did, the trailer was a disaster," he said. "It was trashed."^[246]

Yet these accounts of McVeigh in the Times' on April 23 and 24 are totally contrary to their accounts on May 4 and December 31, which describe him as a compulsive neat-freak, highly disciplined, respectful of his elders, and courteous to a fault. Friends and acquaintances interviewed also claimed that McVeigh was extremely quiet, never drank, and never had a date, much less a pregnant girlfriend.

Yet on April 23, the Post described how McVeigh played loud music, terrorized his neighbors, and was evicted from the park. Then on July 2, the Post wrote:

When he moved into the Canyon West trailer park outside Kingman in 1993, his first act was to wash the dirty curtains and dust, vacuum and scrub the entire trailer spotless, said owner Bob Rangin, who so liked McVeigh that he offered to lower the rent to keep the ex-soldier from moving.

The Post also ran an interview with neighbor Jack Gohn, who said McVeigh was so "quiet, polite and neat and clean" that "if I had a daughter in that age bracket, I would have introduced them."^[247]

Said Marilyn Hart of Timothy McVeigh: "He was very quiet, very polite, very courteous, very neat, very clean, quiet, obeyed all the park rules. He worked on the trailer, did some painting, he did some cleaning on it, he bought new furniture, things like that."^[248]

In fact, what the Times was reporting on was not Timothy McVeigh at all, but a completely different man! According to Hart, the mix-up came when reporters from the Times were given information about Dave Heiden, who also was just out of the service, and had lived in trailer #19 (McVeigh lived in trailer #11). "They thought it was the man who lived down below," said Hart. "He was a slob. But he was not Tim McVeigh. The other guy took his guns out across the way and fired them all the time, he got drunk and got up on top of the trailer and did all kinds of noisy things…."

According to Hart, after the man's girlfriend gave birth he sobered up. "Now they're married, the baby was born, he's straightened up his life," said Hart. "He straightened up his act, and he doesn't act that way any more at all."

Rangin called authors Kifner and McFadden of the Times to correct them. "I tried to tell them that wasn't McVeigh," said Rangin. "I called that fellow at the Times who came down here, and told him they got the wrong guy…"^[249]

According to the Times, it was a "clearly embarrassed" Mr. Rangin who had made the mistake, wrote the Times on April 25: He added that the man he incorrectly recalled as Tim McVeigh "was like you would think" a suspect in a mass killing might be.^[250]

This is clearly interesting considering that for days the Times had been painting McVeigh as a pathological, asexual neat freak who was extremely polite. These traits, the Times' psychobabblists claimed, were indicators of a mass killer.

The Times then claimed on the very next day that McVeigh was a belligerent slob with a pregnant girlfriend, and all of a sudden, these were the characteristics of a mass killer. Obviously, to a propaganda screed like the New York Times, it didn't matter what McVeigh's actual personality really was.

While in Kingman, McVeigh worked at different jobs through an agency called Allied Forces. "He did a number of jobs that way," said Hart. "He was a security guard, he did a number of different jobs. But he always went to his job, did them well… any of the people who worked with him said he didn't act odd, you know, it was totally out of character."^[251]

McVeigh worked for a time at True Value Hardware, on Stockton Hill Road, a job that Fortier helped him get. Paul Shuffler, the store owner, said McVeigh "was a young and clean looking person so I gave him a job." According to Shuffler, "If he was a radical around here, I would have noticed it pretty quick and I would have fired him. Radicals don't last long around here because they just make a mess of things."^[252]

McVeigh also worked for a spell at State Security. The Times interview with co-worker Fred Burkett took a slightly different slant, painting his co-worker McVeigh as an arrogant, gun-toting loner. "He had a very dry personality," Burkett told the Times. "He was not very outgoing, not talkative and not really that friendly. He wasn't a person that mingled. He was a kind of by yourself kind of person, a loner."

Once, Burkett went with McVeigh on a target-shooting course in the desert, where McVeigh "pretty much went crazy," Burkett said. After running through the course, picking off targets with a Glock .45, McVeigh began "emptying clips on pretty much anything — trees, rocks, whatever happened to be there."^[253]

"Other than that, Mr. Burkett said, "he seemed pretty much normal." "The only thing he ever indicated was that he didn't care much for the United States Government and how they ran things," Mr. Burkett said. "He didn't care much for authority and especially when it concerned the government."

Yet authorities have speculated that McVeigh's interests went beyond mere dissatisfaction with the Federal Government. According to Carl Lebron, McVeigh once brought him a newsletter from the Ku Klux Klan.^[254] McVeigh was also fond of a book called the Turner Diaries. Written by former physics professor and neo-Nazi William Pierce, the Turner Diaries was a fictionalized account of a white supremacist uprising against the ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government). The book, exceedingly violent and racist in tone, is a fictionalized account of the overthrow of the Federal Government — which by that time had become the "Jewish-liberal-democratic-equalitarian plague" — by a Right-wing paramilitary group called the "Organization," which then goes on to murder and segregate Jews and other "non-whites." The protagonists also blow up FBI headquarters with a truck-bomb. The Turner Diaries was found on Timothy McVeigh upon his arrest.

The book became the blueprint for a neo-Nazi group called The Order, which terrorized the Midwest in the early to mid '80s with a string of murders and bank robberies. Authorities have speculated that McVeigh, who carried the book with him constantly and sold it at gun shows, was inspired by its screed to commit his terrible act of violence. Yet McVeigh dismisses such suggestions as gibberish. "I bought the book out of the publication that advertised the book as a gun-rights book. That's why I bought it; that's why I read it."^[255]

In Kingman, McVeigh made friends with an ex-marine named Walter "Mac" McCarty. McVeigh apparently sought out the 72-year-old McCarty for discussions in which he tried to make sense of the actions of the Federal Government at Ruby Ridge and Waco, and such issues as the United Nations, the Second Amendment, and the "New World Order."

"I gathered that he was following the Right-wing, survivalist, paramilitary-type philosophy," McCarty said. "I also got the sense that he was searching for meaning and acceptance."^[256]

McVeigh and Fortier also took handgun classes from McCarty during the summer of 1994, which is odd considering that the two men, McVeigh especially, were extremely proficient in the use of firearms. "Believe me, the one thing he did not need was firearms training, "said Fred Burkett, McVeigh's co-worked at State Security. "He was very good and we were impressed with his actions."^[257]

McCarty himself was apparently suspicious of McVeigh's motives. "They wanted to hear certain things from me to see if they could get me involved," said McCarty. "They definitely liked what they heard. We were on the same page about the problems of America."

Why would McVeigh, the consummate firearms expert, bother taking a course in handguns? Perhaps to be around like-minded individuals or as a harmless diversion. It is also possible, like the Lee Harvey Oswald impostor seen at the Texas rifle range, McVeigh was being sheep-dipped. "I know brainwashing when I see it, McCarty said. "Those two boys had really gotten a good case of it." Perhaps McCarty was being more literal than he realized.^[258]

After the August 1994 passage of the Omnibus Crime Bill outlawing certain types of semi-automatic weapons, "McVeigh's demons finally became unbearable," claimed the Times. "What will it take?" wrote McVeigh to Fortier, expressing his exasperation.^[259]

It is possible that McVeigh had some contact with a local militia while in Kingman. According to reporter Mark Schafer of the Arizona Republic, Fortier, who worked at True Value, knew Jack Oliphant, the elderly patron of the Arizona Patriots, an extreme Right-wing paramilitary group. Oliphant had been caught in 1986 planning to blow up the Hoover Dam, the IRS and a local Synagogue. After the FBI raid, Oliphant was sentenced to four years in jail, and the Arizona Patriots went underground. It is reported that Fortier, who sported a "Don't Tread on Me" flag outside his trailer-home, was friendly with some of the Arizona Patriots, including Oliphant.

According to federal authorities, McVeigh also left a note addressed to "S.C." on a utility pole near Kingman seeking "fighters not talkers." It has been speculated that "S.C." is actually Steven Colbern, who lived in the nearby town of Oatman, and was friends with McVeigh. (See Chapter 5)

But federal authorities became very interested when they learned that a small explosion, related to a home-made bomb, had slightly damaged a house down the road from the trailer park. That house was owned by Frosty McPeak, a friend of McVeigh's who had hired him in 1993 to do security work at a local shelter. When McPeak's girlfriend was arrested in Las Vegas on a bad credit charge, Clark Vollmer, a paraplegic drug dealer in Kingman, helped bail her out. In February of '95, Vollmer had asked McPeak to ferry some drugs. He refused. On February 21, a bomb exploded outside McPeak's home. When he went to Vollmer's house to confront him, he found Timothy McVeigh, along with another man he didn't recognize.^[260]

According to Mohave County Sheriff Joe Cook, the explosion "wasn't really a big deal" and probably wasn't related to the explosion in Oklahoma City.^[261]

What does Marilyn Hart think about McVeigh's connection to the local militias? "I probably do know several people who are militia," said Hart. "But they don't advertise it, and they're not kooks. To me, McVeigh didn't have the money. The two other guys, Rosencrans and Fortier, went to school with our children, and neither of them have money either. And it took a good amount of money to pull this off. "

"Obsessed With Waco"

Whether or not McVeigh's "demons" became "unbearable" after the passage of the Omnibus Crime Bill, his anger, along with that of millions of others, would be justified by the governments' massacre of 86 innocent men, women and children at the Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventist Church near Waco the following April. The ostensible purpose of the ATF's raid was to inspect the premises for illegal weapons. Although the Davidians, who were licensed gun dealers, had invited the ATF to inspect their weapons, the agency declined; they were more interested in staging a show raid to impress the public and increase their budgetary allowance. In fact, the raid was code-named "Show Time."

On February 28, 1993, without a proper warrant and without identifying themselves, over 100 agents stormed the Church compound. Residents who answered the door were immediately fired upon. At least one ATF helicopter began strafing the building, firing into the roof. For the next hour, ATF agents fired thousands of rounds into the compound. Many church members, including women, children and the elderly, were killed by gunfire as they lay huddled in fear, the women attempting to cover the children with their bodies. Church members repeatedly begged the 911 operator to stop the raid. In the ensuing battle, four ATF agents were killed, although there is evidence that indicates they were killed by "friendly fire."

Several days later, the FBI took over. Almost immediately, they began psychologically harassing the Church members with loud noises. For over a month and a half, the Davidians were tormented by the sounds of dying animals, religious chants, loud music, and their own voices. Their electricity was cut off, and milk and other supplies necessary for young chidden was not allowed into the compound. Bright lights were shined on residents 24 hours-a-day, and armored vehicles began circling the compound, while flash-bang grenades were thrown into the courtyard.

The media was kept at bay, fed propagandizing stories by FBI spokesmen that painted the Davidians as crazed cultists with desires for apocalyptic self-destruction — dangerous wackos who stockpiled machine-guns and who abused their children. The mass media happily obliged, feeding these images to a gullible public.^[262]

After a 51-day standoff, the newly appointed Attorney General, Janet Reno, approved an FBI plan to assault the compound with a highly volatile form of tear-gas, proven deadly to children, who she was ostensibly trying to protect from "abuse." On April 19, tanks from the Texas National Guard and the Army's Joint Task Force Six, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act forbidding the use of military force against private citizens, stormed the compound, firing hundreds of CS gas ferret rounds into the buildings. The tanks also rammed the buildings repeatedly, knocking holes in them, the official explanation being so that the residents could more easily escape. Instead, what it did was cause the buildings to collapse, killing dozens as they lay crouched in fear. Kerosene lanterns knocked over by the tank ramming ignited the highly flammable CS gas, and the holes created a flue effect through the buildings, caused by 30 mile and hour winds. Immediately the compound became a fiery inferno.

While some residents managed to escape, most were trapped inside, exphyxiated by the gas, crushed by falling debris, or burned alive. Some who tried to escape were shot by FBI snipers. One unarmed man who tried to enter the compound to be with his family was shot six times, then left lying in a field while prairie dogs picked at his bones. During the final siege, which lasted for six hours, firetrucks were purposefully kept away. Bradley M-2 armored vehicles fitted with plows pushed in the still standing walls, burying those still trapped inside. A concrete vault where approximately 30 people had sought refuge was blasted open with demolition charges, killing most of the people inside.

When it was all over, the fire department was allowed inside the compound to pump water on the smoldering debris. Out of approximately 100 Church members, 86 perished, including 27 children. No FBI agent was injured. The remaining 11 Church members were put on trial for attempted murder of federal agents. During the trial, government prosecutors repeatedly withheld, altered, and destroyed evidence. The government even cut off electricity to the morgue, preventing autopsies on the bodies.

The judge, recently under scrutiny by the "Justice" Department, also refused to allow the testimony of critical witnesses. Although the jury found all 11 innocent, the judge reversed the verdict. Nine Davidians were imprisoned for attempting to defend their families. Some received sentences up to 40 years.

While "General" Reno, in a symbolic gesture of public reconciliation, took "full responsibility" for the actions of the FBI, she never resigned or served time. In fact, Larry Potts, who led the raid on behalf of the FBI, was promoted.

The assault would be compared to the massacre of the Jews in Warsaw by the Nazis during WWII. A bunch of religious fanatics. Who'd complain? Who'd care? Yet the government didn't count on the fact that a lot of people would care. Millions in fact. The murder of the Branch Davidians would indeed become a wake-up call for a citizenry concerned about an increasingly tyrannical, lawless government. A government that would murder its own citizens with impunity, in fact with zeal. A government that would lie to its citizens, and be accountable to no one.^[263]

In March of 1993, Timothy McVeigh traveled from Kingman to Waco to observe the 51-day standoff. He was photographed by the FBI along with others protesting the siege on the road outside the compound, selling bumper stickers out of his car. Like Lee Harvey Oswald, who was photographed at the Cuban embassy in Mexico (a claim made by the government, but never substantiated), the photo of McVeigh would be added proof of his far-Right-wing associations.

A day and a half later, McVeigh drove to Decker, Michigan to be with his old Army buddy, Terry Nichols. The Nichols family sat with McVeigh in their living room as they watched M-2 Bradley assault vehicles storm the compound. On April 19, they watched as the Branch Davidian Church burnt to the ground. "Tim did not say a word," said James Nichols, who watched the compound burn to the ground along with Tim and his brother. "We stood there and watched the live television footage as the church burned and crumbled… we couldn't believe it."^[264]

McVeigh, who the Justice Department claimed was "particularly agitated about the conduct of the Federal Government in Waco," had a right to be. McVeigh had offered his life to serve in the military, and now had seen that very same military massacring its own citizens. He could see the Green Berets from the Army's Joint Task Force Six advising the FBI, and had watched while Bradley armored vehicles — the same vehicles he had served in — gassed and bulldozed the citizens of a country he had sworn to defend.

The Federal Building was blown up on April 19, the two year anniversary of the Waco conflagration. Like millions of other citizens, McVeigh was angry about the deadly raid. He was particularly incensed about the participation of the Army's Joint Task Force Six, and about the deployment of the Seventh Light Infantry during the Los Angeles riots in 1992, and the United Nations command over American soldiers in Somalia, his former Army friend Staff Sergeant Albert Warnement told the Times. "He thought the Federal Government was getting too much power. He thought the ATF was out of control."^[265]

"I saw a localized police state," McVeigh told the London Sunday Times, "[and] was angry at how this had come about."^[266]

"Their (the FBI's) actions in Waco, Texas were wrong. And I'm not fixated on it...." he told Newsweek.

"It disturbed him," said Burkett. "It was wrong, and he was mad about it. He was flat out mad. He said the government wasn't worth the powder to blow it to hell."^[267]

Perhaps rather coincidentally, McVeigh's sister Jennifer said that during her brother's November '94 visit to the McVeigh family home in Lockport, he confided that he had been driving around with 1,000 pounds of explosives. During his trial Prosecutor Beth Wilkinson asked Jennifer if she had questioned her brother about why he was carrying so much. "I don't think I wanted to know," she said.^[268]

Just what was McVeigh doing driving around with explosives, and where did he acquire them? Were these explosives part of the batch of ammonium nitrate Terry Nichols had allegedly purchased from the Mid-Kansas Co-op on October 20, or perhaps the Dynamite and Tovex the government alleged Nichols stole from the Martin Marietta rock quarry in September?

Obviously this, and McVeigh's expression of anger at the Federal Government, would become the foundation of their case against him. In a letter Tim wrote to Jennifer, he is highly critical of the ATF. The anonymous letter, which was sent to the federal agency, was accompanied by a note that read: "All you tyrannical motherfuckers will swing in the wind one day for your treasonous actions against the Constitution and the United States." It concluded with the words, "Die, you spineless cowardice bastards."^[269]

"He was very angry," recalled Jennifer McVeigh during her brother's trial. "He thought the government gassed and murdered the people there."

Jennifer also claimed her brother also wrote a letter to the American Legion saying that ATF agents "are a bunch of fascist tyrants." He identified himself in the letter as a member of the "citizens' militia." He also sent his sister literature on the standoff at Ruby Ridge, the Constitution, and even a copy of the Turner Diaries. ^[270]

By the Spring of 1995, he told Jennifer not to send any more letters to him after May 1 because "G-men might get them." Then he sent her a letter saying, "Something big is going to happen in the month of the Bull." He did not explain what that meant, but Jennifer looked in her astrology book and saw that the "month of the Bull" was April. McVeigh also advised her to extend her Spring break — which began on April 8 — a bit longer than the planned two weeks, and instructed her to burn the letter.^[271]

For McVeigh's part, he wrote that this "expression of rage" the government claimed was so key, was nothing more than "…part of my contribution to defense of freedom, this call to arms.… I intend to become more active in the future. I would rather fight with pencil lead than bullet lead. We can win this war in voting booth. If we have to fight in the streets, I would not be so sure…. All too often in the past, we gutsy gun owners have lost the battle because we have failed to fight. The Brady Bill could have been defeated in Congress if gun owners had become more involved in electing officials and communicating to those officials what was expected to them.… Start your defense today. Stamps are cheaper than bullets and can be more effective."

This letter, found by authorities in McVeigh's car, speaks of a man committed to fighting for freedom as many Americans have, in the "voting booth," and with pen and paper. Yet lead prosecutor Joseph Hartzler would read this letter, along with quotes such as this one: "My whole mindset has shifted… from the intellectual to the animal," into evidence at McVeigh's trial, in an attempt to prove that Timothy McVeigh was committed to violence.

Like Lee Harvey Oswald, who was upset about the Cuban Bay of Pigs invasion and American foreign policy in general, a view he expressed to his friends in Dallas, McVeigh was upset about the government's foreign policy, a view he expressed to his friends here. "He wasn't happy about Somalia," that if we could put the United States under basically UN command and send them to Somalia to disarm their citizens, then why couldn't they come do the same thing in the United States?" Sergeant Warnement said.

McVeigh was also reportedly angry over the killings of Sammy and Vicki Weaver, who were killed by federal agents at their cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho in August of 1992. Randy Weaver had become a fugitive wanted on a minor weapons violation. During the stand-off, U.S. Marshals had shot 14-year-old Sammy Weaver in the back, and had shot Vicki Weaver, Randy's wife, in the face as she stood at the cabin door holding her infant daughter. McVeigh had traveled to Ruby Ridge and came back convinced that federal agents intentionally killed the Weavers.

Although his anger over Waco and Ruby Ridge hardly implicates McVeigh in the destruction of the Federal Building, the government would make this one of the cornerstones of it case. The press naturally jumped on the bandwagon. When Jane Pauley of NBC's Dateline interviewed Jennifer McVeigh about her thoughts on Waco, she said, "The way I saw it, the Davidians were just a group of people who had their own way of living, perhaps different from the mainstream. But they were never really harming anybody. And to bring in all those tanks and things like that to people who are just minding their own business, not harming anybody, I just — I don't think that's right."

But the dead, burned children at Waco were not what the producers at Dateline wanted the public to see. Immediately after Jennifer's statement, they cut to an image of the bombed-out day care center inside the Murrah Building. "We… We've been hoping this wouldn't be the case," said the live voice of an unidentified rescue worker, "but it is the case, there was a day-care inside the building."

Time ran a page dedicated to the Waco theory, stating, "The date of last week's bombing and the anniversary of the apocalyptic fire (notice they don't say government massacre) at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco — has only gained in infamy, intricately bound as it is to the mythologies of homegrown zealots like McVeigh."^[272]

Sheep-Dipped

It would appear that the seed that gave root to McVeigh's "homegrown zeal" was incubated in a U.S. government hothouse and fertilized by a heaping dose of intelligence agency fanaticism.

After Waco, with the emergence of the Militia Movement, the stage would be set, the die would be cast — for Timothy McVeigh to be poured into like a miniature lead soldier. While the FBI and the press admitted that McVeigh didn't actually belong to any organized militia organization, "there was considerable evidence that he sympathized with and espoused their beliefs," wrote the Times.

He voiced their ideas in conversations, he wrote letters expressing them, he read their literature and attended their meetings. And he lived, worked and traded weapons in areas where the paramilitary groups enjoy considerable support…^[273]

Like Lee Harvey Oswald, who appeared to be an avid Communist, distributing leaflets on behalf of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, McVeigh would play the part of an avowed Right-winger, distributing literature about taxes, the Second Amendment, Waco and Ruby Ridge. Like Oswald, who left behind a diary widely believed to be a CIA forgery, McVeigh was purported to have similarly documented his own extremist position. According to the Times:

Law enforcement officials say McVeigh left behind a large body of writings about his ideological leanings, including extensive tracts in letters to friends and relatives, that describe his belief in the constitutional principles that he adamantly maintained allowed him to carry firearms and live without any restraints from the government. Prosecutors are likely to use such documents to establish his motive at a trial.^[274]

Like Oswald, McVeigh's departure from the military was under somewhat mysterious circumstances. And like Oswald, an ex-Marine with a top-secret security clearance who appeared to "defect" to the Soviet Union, McVeigh would appear to be a "disgruntled" ex-Army sergeant who happened to "drift" into the fringes of the far-Right.^[275]

Yet, like Oswald, who lived and worked amongst the bastions of the far-Right in Dallas while purporting to be a Marxist, McVeigh would not seem to be the extreme Right-wing fanatic he's been made out to be. In a letter to his hometown newspaper in February, 1992, he wrote:

At a point when the world has seen Communism falter as an imperfect system to manage people; democracy seems to be headed down the same road…. Maybe we have to combine ideologies to achieve the perfect utopian government. Remember, government-sponsored health care was a Communist idea….

Obviously, such views are anathema to the far-Right, who see any attempt to socialize society as a major step towards the great one-world Communist conspiracy. It is possible that McVeigh was more progressive than his Right-wing associates. It is also possible that McVeigh was being sheep-dipped as a militant Right-winger.

After Waco, McVeigh traveled to Michigan, staying for a time with Terry Nichols. He worked on Nichols' farm, and went hunting and target practicing. Neighbors recall how McVeigh and Nichols made and detonated small homemade bombs. Paul Izydorek, a neighbor, recalls "When they were around, they'd get different guns and play and shoot and stuff." On at least one occasion, Izydorek heard blasts at the farm and noticed Terry Nichols and a man he thought was McVeigh. "I'd seen them playing around with different household items that you can make blow up. Just small stuff. Just outside in the yard, blowing away."^[276]

Nichols' brother James also admitted to the FBI that McVeigh and Terry made and exploded "bottle bombs" at his farm, using brake fluid, gasoline, and diesel fuel, and that he sometimes participated.^[277]

In his interview with Newsweek, McVeigh dispelled the myth that his bomb making was a precursor to more deadly acts. "It would amount to firecrackers. It was like popping a paper bag," said McVeigh, who had also experimented with small explosives on his land in Olean, NY prior to entering the Army.

Yet a relative also told the FBI that James Nichols kept a large supply of ammonium nitrate fertilizer on the farm — the very substance federal authorities accused the suspects of using to manufacture their alleged truck-bomb, a fact that would become yet another linchpin in the government's case against the two men.

While in Michigan, McVeigh also started working the gun shows. From April of 1993 to March of 1995, McVeigh would travel from Kingman, Arizona to Decker, Michigan, and across the U.S., attending militia meetings and working the gun show circuit. A gun collector interviewed by the Times said that he had encountered McVeigh in gun shows ranging from Florida to Oklahoma to Nevada. "At the S.O.F. (Soldier of Fortune) convention he was kind of wandering around," said the gun collector, who requested anonymity, "like he was trying to meet people, maybe make converts. He could make ten friends at a show, just by his manner and demeanor. He's polite, he doesn't interrupt."

"McVeigh traveled around the country in a rattletrap car," wrote the Times' Kifner, "his camouflage fatigues clean and pressed, his only companion a well-thumbed copy of the venomous apocalyptic novel, The Turner Diaries."

Yet it would seem McVeigh is not the asexual, sociopathic loner that the press — the New York Times in particular — has made him out to be.

Had Kifner read the May 5th edition of Newsweek, he would have discovered that McVeigh had more than an old book for a companion. Newsweek reported that a Kansas private investigator had tracked down an old [platonic] girlfriend of McVeigh's — most likely Catina Lawson of Herrington, Kansas — attempting to convince her to sell her story to a news agency.^[278]

Robert Jerlow, an Oklahoma City private investigator, was also tracking down a girlfriend of McVeigh's in Las Vegas.^[279] And CNN indicated that authorities had discovered a letter in the glove compartment to an old girlfriend.^[280]

Yet McVeigh's gypsy-like travels across the country in an old beat-up car were slightly more then unusual. He traveled widely with no visible means of support, other than trading and selling guns and military paraphernalia. Yet acquaintances and other witnesses recall he always had wads of cash on him. Upon his arrest, McVeigh had $2,000 on him. He reportedly had thousands more stashed away. He also traveled without luggage, making his car and occasional cheap motels his only home.

"He lived in his car," said the gun dealer quoted in the Times. "Whatever he owned it was in that car."^[281]

According to his sister Jennifer, his closest confidant, "…half the time we didn't know where he was. Half the time he wouldn't even tell us where he was living."^[282]

Again, one has to ask why McVeigh would voluntarily give up a promising military career to go careening around the country hawking used military surplus in an old car.

McVeigh used the name "Tim Tuttle" while working the gun shows, claiming that the alias was necessary to protect him from people who didn't share his political views.^[283] There is another possible reason McVeigh may have used an alias however.

At one gun show in Phoenix, an undercover detective reported that McVeigh had been attempting to sell a flare gun which he claimed could be converted into a rocket launcher. According to Bill Fitzgerald of the Maricopa County Attorney's office in Phoenix, McVeigh "took a shell apart and showed that the interior could be removed and another package put in that could shoot down an ATF helicopter." He also was reportedly handing out copies of the name and address of Lon Horiuchi, the FBI sniper who shot and killed Vicki Weaver, and selling caps with the letters 'ATF' surrounded by bullet holes.^[284]

"He had come to see himself as a soldier in his own strange war against the United States," wrote the Times. McVeigh's mother told an acquaintance after visiting with him in her home state of Florida that he was "totally changed," and observed, "it was like he traded one Army for another one."^[285]

While it is highly possible that McVeigh, like many people, genuinely disliked the ATF and FBI, it is also possible he used such high-profile anti-government tactics as a ruse while working undercover. While such behavior might appear extreme, it is a classic agent provocateur technique. The ATF routinely works undercover at gun shows, searching for people selling illegal firearms. Who better to lure and entrap unwary victims than a gun dealer claiming to be virulently anti-ATF. It is also possible that McVeigh was working undercover for another agency.

In an illuminating series of phone calls to Representative Charles Key, an anonymous source stated that McVeigh was present at several meetings with ATF and DEA agents in the days immediately preceding the bombing. The meetings took place in Oklahoma City at different locations. The ostensible purpose of the meetings were to provide McVeigh with further instructions, and to facilitate a payoff.

David Hall of KPOC-TV uncovered information that McVeigh had met with local ATF agent Alex McCauley in a McDonalds the night before the bombing. The ATF agent was seen handing McVeigh an envelope. (See Chapter 9)

CNN would cast a pale over this [largely unknown] information by reporting in June of 1995 that McVeigh had been under surveillance by an undercover operative at an Arizona gun show two years prior to the bombing.

This fact was reinforced when the Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai B'Rith (ADL) reported that McVeigh ran an ad for a "rocket launcher" (actually a flare gun) in the far-Right Spotlight newspaper on August 9, 1993. In fact, the ad didn't appear until the next week, August 16. McVeigh had originally paid to have the advertisement run on the 9th. Not being aware of the Spotlight's impending scheduling conflict, however, the ADL reported that the ad had run one week before it actually did. This subsumes that the ADL, long known for its spying and intelligence-gathering activities, had McVeigh under surveillance as well.^[286]

Interestingly, McVeigh's young friend, Catina Lawson, recalled a strange man who often showed up at summer parties the high-schoolers threw. The soldiers from nearby Ft. Riley would attend the gatherings looking to meet girls, and McVeigh and his friends Michael Brescia and Andy Strassmeir (who lived at the white separatist compound in Southeast Oklahoma known as Elohim City), would often attend.^[287]

Yet the man Catina described was neither a high-schooler nor a soldier. This mysterious character in his late 30s to mid-40s, who often wore a suit and a tie and drove a red sports car, was was apparently not there to pick up girls. As Connie Smith, Catina's mother told me, "The man did not interact with anyone else… he stayed off… he never interacted with anybody else," only McVeigh.

Barbara Whittenberg, who owned the Sante Fe Trail Diner in Herrington, Kansas, also remembered the man. The restaurant owner recalled that he would come in with McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who lived nearby. She didn't know where he was from, and had never seen him before.

Was McVeigh an informant? Was he working for two different agencies? Numerous Kennedy researchers have uncovered evidence that Oswald was an FBI informant at the same time he was being sheep-dipped by the CIA for his role in the JFK assassination. According to former District Attorney (later federal judge) Jim Garrison:

Oswald appears to have been extensively manipulated by the CIA for a long time prior to the assassination and may well have believed he was working for the government. Oswald was also a confidential informant, a job that provided additional control over him and may have given him a reason to believe he was actually penetrating a plot to assassinate the president.^[288]

Situations where a person is working for two law-enforcement or intelligence agencies at the same time are not uncommon.

What is uncommon is for a man like McVeigh to give up a promising military career to hawk used duffel bags from an old car. But then again, in the twilight netherworld of intelligence operations, things aren't always what they appear.^[289]

While in Michigan, McVeigh also began tuning in to the Voice of America and Radio Free America on his shortwave. He was drawn to personalities like Chuck Harder, Jack McLamb, and Mark Koernke, all conveying an anti-federalist, anti-New World Order message. "He sent me a lot of newsletters and stuff from those groups he was involved in," said Warnement, then stationed in Germany. "There were newsletters from Bo Gritz's group, some other odd newsletters, some from the Patriots; then he sent that videotape 'The Big Lie' about Waco."^[290]

McVeigh also began attending militia meetings. According to Michigan Militia member Eric Maloney, McVeigh was present at a truck-stop near Detroit for a January 25, 1995 meeting of approximately 70 members of the Oakland County Six Brigade. Members had obtained photographs of T-72 tanks and other Russian vehicles en route via railway flatcars to Camp Grayling, an Air National Guard base in northern Michigan. Although the captured Iraqi tanks were for target practice, the militiamen interpreted the equipment as proof positive of a UN plan to disarm American citizens and declare martial law.

According to Maloney and militia member Joseph Ditzhazy, a plot was hatched to attack the base by Mark Koernke, a high-profile militia spokesman known to his radio listeners as "Mark from Michigan." According to Maloney, Koernke said, "We can either take them out now while we're still able to, or wait until the sons of bitches are rolling down the street…" Three days later, about 20 members met at a farm near Leonard to discuss plans for the attack. According to Maloney, McVeigh was one of 13 who volunteered for the assault. "McVeigh was there," recalled Maloney on ABC's Prime Time Live. "My wife sat next to him. He was very attentive, very interested in being involved in that operation, volunteered his services."

The plan never came off. Ditzhazy and Maloney alerted State Police, who then contacted federal authorities. When the plot was made public, the Michigan Militia issued a press release stating that the plan was the brainchild of Koernke, working alongside a group of renegade members. Others who attended the meetings said that it was actually Maloney who pushed the plan, and had to be dissuaded from going through with it. Interestingly, Maloney was to provide weapons training for several of the attackers, and Ditzhazy, who made audio-tapes of the meetings, is a former military intelligence officer. When the FBI was contacted about Ditzhazy's claim that the plot was hatched by McVeigh and others, the FBI refused comment.^[291]

What is also interesting is that Koernke himself is a former Army intelligence officer. Koernke, a veteran of the 70th Army Reserve Division in Livonia, Michigan, refers to himself as an "intelligence analyst" and "counterintelligence coordinator" with a "top-secret clearance." He also purports to have trained two "special-warfare" brigades that trained Army personnel in "foreign warfare and tactics." While his claims may be exaggerated, Koernke did attend the Army's intelligence school at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. He returned to Michigan an E-5 specialist with a G-2 (security) section of a peacetime Reserve unit.^[292]

Koernke quickly rose to become one of the most sought after speakers on the Patriot circuit, leading off seminars in over 40 states. His video, America in Peril, sounds apocalyptic warnings of the coming New World Order, including plans by the Council of Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderbergers to dominate and enslave America — with of course, a little help from Russian troops, Nepalese Gurkhas, and L.A. street gangs.^[293] It would seem that Koernke is employing a time-tested technique of intelligence PSYOP disinformation. While purporting to rail against what may be genuine plans of a New World Order cabal, Koernke slips in just enough ridiculous disinformation to discredit his thesis, and by association, anyone who supports it.

After the bombing, the media put Koernke in its spotlight. Koernke has boasted freely to friends that he was once employed as a "provocateur." He didn't say exactly for whom. In his tape, Koernke is shown holding an AK-47 and a cord of rope, stating: "Now, I did some basic math the other day, not New World Order math, and I found that using the old-style math you can get about four politicians for about 120 foot of rope. And, by the way, DuPont made this. It is very fitting that one of the New World Order crowd should provide us with the resources to liberate our nation.…"

While the author personally has no qualms about stringing up the DuPonts, the Rockefellers and many other icons of the military-industrial-establishment, Koernke's rant smacks of the classic art of propaganda — that of the agent provocateur. Many in the Militia movement have accused him of just that.^[294]*

On September 8, 1994, Fowerville, Michigan police stopped a car that contained three men in camouflage and black face paint, armed with three 9mm semiautomatics, a .357 Magnum, an assortment of assault rifles, and 7,000 rounds of ammunition. The men claimed to be Koernke's bodyguards.

Ken Kirkland, an official of the St. Lucia County, Florida Militia said that McVeigh was acting as Koernke's bodyguard at a March 1994 meeting. Kirkland recalled a bodyguard in Army camouflage clothes resembling McVeigh who introduced himself as "Tim" and was "really upset about Waco."^[295]

Koernke and McVeigh both deny this. As McVeigh told Newsweek "…I was never to one of their meetings, either."^[296]

Was Koernke's "bodyguard" actually Tim McVeigh? In the September, 1995 issue of Soldier of Fortune, an ATF agent — the spitting image of Tim McVeigh — is seen accompanying ATF Agent Robert Rodriquez to the trial of the Branch Davidians. Was this in fact the "McVeigh" who accompanied Koernke?

Given both mens' mysterious backgrounds, their curious intersections in Florida and Michigan, and the Camp Grayling and Fowerville incidents, it is highly likely that we are looking at two agent provocateurs.

Other evidence of McVeigh's apparent employment as an agent provocateur would surface later. In a statement he made to Newsweek in response to a question about Reno and Clinton asking for the death penalty, McVeigh said: "I thought it was awfully hypocritical, especially because in some ways the government was responsible for doing it. I thought she was playing both sides of the fence." One must wonder just how McVeigh knows that "in some ways" the government was "responsible for doing it."

McVeigh's own insurrectionist tendencies began coming to fruition towards the end of 1993, according to authorities, when McVeigh informed his sister that he was part of an anti-government group that was robbing banks. This startling revelation came in the form of three $100 bills he sent to Jennifer in a letter dated December 24, 1993. The money was part of the proceeds from a bank heist. As Jennifer told the FBI on May 2, 1995:

"He had been involved in a bank robbery but did not provide any further details concerning the robbery. He advised me that he had not actually participated in the robbery itself, but was somehow involved in the planning or setting up of this robbery. Although he did not identify the participants by name, he stated that 'they' had committed the robbery. His purpose for relating this information to me was to request that I exchange some of my own money for what I recall to be approximately three (3) $100.00 bills.

"He explained that this money was from the bank robbery and he wished to circulate this money through me. To the best of my recollection, I then gave my brother what I recall to be approximately $300.00 of my personal cash, in exchange for 3 $100.00 bills, which I deposited within the next several days in an account at the Unit No. 1 Federal credit Union, Lockport, New York."

Jennifer also recalled Tim stating, "Persons who rob banks may not be criminals at all. He implied Jews are running the country and a large degree of control is exercised by the Free Masons. Banks are the real thieves and the income tax is illegal."^[297]

Was Timothy McVeigh in fact a bank robber? If so, it is possible he was inspired by the Turner Diaries. The protagonists in that novel finance their overthrow of the "Zionist Occupational Government" by robbing banks and armored cars. As previously discussed, the book became a real life inspiration for Robert Matthew's Order, also known as "The Silent Brotherhood," which was engaged in heists of banks and armored cars throughout the Midwest during the 1980s. The Order was part of the white Aryan supremacist community that sought to establish an all-white homeland in the Northwest.

In December of 1984, Mathews was killed in a shoot-out with the FBI and police, and the Order disintegrated. Yet the white supremacist movement lived on, in such guises as the Aryan Nations, White Aryan Resistance (WAR), and a new, as yet unheard of group — the Aryan Republican Army, whose members are believed to be direct descendants of the Order.

It was to this last group that Timothy McVeigh would be drawn, at a rural white separatist religious community in southeast Oklahoma called Elohim City. It was there that McVeigh would meet such self-styled revolutionaries as Peter "Commander Pedro" Langan, who, along with Scott Stedeford, Kevin McCarthy, and the late Richard Guthrie, would go on to rob over 22 banks across the Midwest, collecting a total of $250,000.

In a recruitment video obtained by the McCurtain Gazette, Langan appears in a disguise, explaining the goals of the ARA — the overthrow of the Federal Government, and the subsequent execution of all Jews and the deportation of all non-whites from the U.S.

In the tape, made only a few months before the Oklahoma City bombing, Langan says, "Federal buildings may have to be bombed and civilian loss of life is regrettable but expected."^[298]

According to ATF informant Carol Howe, interviewed by Gazette reporter J.D. Cash, both McVeigh and Fortier had visited Elohim City, as had Langan, Guthrie, Stedeford and McCarthy. A secret recording made by the informant apparently reveals discussions between Andreas Strassmeir, Elohim City's chief of security (also suspected of being an informant), and various ARA members, discussing plans to blow up federal buildings. While it is not known if McVeigh was intimately involved with the ARA bank robbers, he was seen with Strassmeir and ARA associate Michael Brescia at parties in Kansas, and at a bar in Tulsa shortly before the bombing. McVeigh had also called Elohim City looking for Strassmeir the day after he reserved the Ryder truck allegedly used in the bombing.

In the Fall on 1994, McVeigh and Terry Nichols allegedly began hoarding ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel. By mid-October, the pair had, according to official accounts, managed to stockpile approximately 4,000 pounds of fertilizer, which they stashed in storage lockers from Kansas to Arizona.^[299]

Like Mohammed Salemeh, a World Trade Center bombing suspect arrested when he attempted to retrieve his truck rental deposit, McVeigh would be linked to the bombing by the first in a chain of damning evidence — his thumbprint on a fertilizer receipt found in Terry Nichols' home; inquires about bomb-making materials made on his calling-card; and the paperwork used to rent the Ryder truck itself.

Like Salemeh's rental receipt which had traces of ANFO on it, McVeigh's clothes would allegedly contain traces of a detonator cord known as PDTN.^[300] Like the World Trade Center bombers who stockpiled bomb-making equipment in rented storage lockers in New Jersey, McVeigh and Nichols would store their ammonium nitrate in rented lockers in Kansas and Arizona. And like the World Trade Center bombers who called commercial chemical companies requesting bomb-making materials, McVeigh would implicate himself by using a traceable phone card to make his purchases.

The most damming evidence linking McVeigh to the crime would be the witness sightings placing him at the Murrah Building just before the bombing, following the Ryder truck, then speeding away in his yellow Mercury several minutes before the blast.

Yet the most curious evidence implicating McVeigh in the bombing came from witnesses who say he cased the building on December 16, when he and Michael Fortier drove through Oklahoma City en route to Kansas, then again approximately one and a half weeks before the bombing.

Danielle Wise Hunt, who operated the Stars and Stripes Child Development Center in the Murrah Building, told the FBI that on December 16, a clean-cut man wearing camouflage fatigues approached her, seeking to place his two children in the day care center. Hunt told agents that the man didn't ask typical parent-type questions, but instead wanted to know about the day-care center's security. Hunt thought he might be a potential kidnapper. Later, after seeing his face on TV, she recognized the man as Timothy McVeigh.^[301]

If the man was indeed Timothy McVeigh, it is curious why he would later claim he was unaware of the day-care center in the building. If McVeigh was so upset about the deaths of innocent children at Waco, why would he knowingly bomb a building containing innocent children as an act of revenge?

Yet this "act of revenge" is precisely what the government claims motived him. Such an act could only be the result of a deranged man. Yet McVeigh is anything but deranged. In his July 3rd Newsweek interview, he said, "For two days, in the cell, we could hear news reports; and of course everyone, including myself, was horrified at the deaths of the children. And you know, that was the No. 1 focal point of the media at the time, too, obviously — the deaths of the children. It's a very tragic thing."

Perhaps "deranged" isn't the proper word; perhaps "controlled" would be more appropriate. After his arrest, McVeigh was shown photographs of the dead children. He claimed to have no emotional reaction. Again, this could very well be indicative of a psychologically-controlled individual.

There is another strong possibility. The man whom witnesses say is Timothy McVeigh may not have been Timothy McVeigh at all.

"Lee Harvey" McVeigh

As previously discussed, McVeigh, along with his friends Andreas Strassmeir, Mike Fortier, and Michael Brescia attended parties in Herrington, Kansas in the Summer of '92. Catina Lawson was actually good friends with McVeigh, and her roommate, Lindsey Johnson, dated Michael Brescia. Lawson's accounts are well documented.^[302]

Yet calling card records obtained by the Rocky Mountain News indicate that each call charged to the card during 1992 originated within western New York, where McVeigh was working as a security guard for Burns International Security. There appears to be little time he could have gone to Kansas to party with teen-agers.

Dr. Paul Heath, the VA psychologist who worked in the Murrah Building and survived the blast, spoke to an individual named "McVeigh" late one Friday afternoon, a week and a half before the bombing. In an interview with the author, he described in vivid detail his encounter with "McVeigh" and two other men, one of whom appears to be one of the elusive John Doe 2s.

"I've narrowed this to probably a Friday [April 7], at around three o'clock," recalls Heath. "A bell rang in the outer office of room 522. No one answered, so I went out to the waiting room…. A man came in with two others to apply for a job. One other was American-Indian looking, the other was Caucasian. A male individual was standing there, and I introduced myself as Dr. Heath, 'how can I help you?' and this individual said 'my name is something' and I don't remember what his first name was, but he told me his last name was McVeigh.

"So I said 'can I help you?' and he said 'well, we're here looking for work.' and I said 'what kind of work are we looking for?' He said 'we are looking for construction work.' And I said, 'well Mr. Birmbaum, the gentleman who is the job counselor for the state jobs office, is not here.' And this individual — I asked him if I could go back and get the job openings from the job counselor's desk — and he said 'no, that won't be necessary.' So I said, 'well, I'm very familiar with the area, and I could give you some job leads,' and I began to tell him about job leads, and began to give him some names and some different projects, and I said 'would you like me to get you the phone book; I could get you the state jobs offices.' He said, 'no, that won't be necessary.'

"And about somewhere along in this conversation, the man who was sitting on the east wall, directly behind the man who named himself as McVeigh, came up behind the man, and said 'can I use your phone?' I would describe him as vanilla, 5'7" or 5'9", mid-30's. [Then] the third party who was in the office, looked directly at me, made eye contact with me, and… I got the impression that this individual's nationality was Native American, or half-Native American or half-Mexican American or a foreign national. He was handsome — at one time my mind said maybe he was from South America.

"I… continued to talk to Mr. McVeigh and I said, 'Mr. McVeigh, did you take anything in high school that would be beneficial for me to know about so I could refer you to a different type of job?' And he said, 'well, probably not.' And I said, 'well, where did you go to high school?' And he either said up north or New York. And then I said, 'Where are you living?' And he said, 'Well, I've been living in Kansas.' So then I said, 'Do you happen to be a member of the McVay family from Cussing, Oklahoma?' …he said, 'Well Dr. Heath, how do they spell their name?' 'Well I assume, M-c-V-a-y.' And he took his finger, and he kind of put it in my face and said, 'Well Dr. Heath,' in kind of a boisterous way, 'Dr. Heath, you remember this. My name is McVeigh, but you don't spell it M-c-V-a-y….'"^[303]

What Dr. Heath was describing appears to have been Timothy McVeigh and his co-conspirators casing the Murrah Building. As the press reported, the men went floor-to-floor, asking job-related questions and picking up applications. Yet if McVeigh had already cased the building on December 16, as reported by Danielle Hunt, why would he need to case it again?

Moreover, if McVeigh wanted to case the building, why would he do it in such a conspicuous manner? Why would he go from floor-to-floor asking about job openings, then pretend not to be interested in following them up? And… if McVeigh was planning on committing such a horrific crime, why would he make it a point to tell people his name, saying to Dr. Heath, "You remember this… My name is McVeigh."

Former Federal Grand Juror Hoppy Heidelberg concurs. "Why would McVeigh walk around the building before the blast telling people his name?"^[304]

If McVeigh was keen on informing people of his identity before committing the crime, he apparently was on a roll. On Saturday, April 8, McVeigh and friends Andreas Strassmeir and Michael Brescia — both living at Elohim City at the time — were seen at Lady Godiva's topless bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma. According to a security camera videotape obtained by J.D. Cash of the McCurtain Gazette, and Trish Wood of CBC, McVeigh's boasts were the topic of discussion among the dancers that night. In the tape, one of the girls named Tara is overheard relating the conversation to another girl in the dressing room:

"...he goes, 'I'm a very smart man.' I said, you are? And he goes, 'Yes, you're going to find an (inaudible) and they're going to hurt you real bad.' I was, like, 'Oh really?' And he goes, 'Yes, and you're going to remember me on April 19, 1995. You're going to remember me for the rest of your life.'

Laughing, she replies, "Oh, really?"

"Yes you will," McVeigh says.^[305]

The sighting of McVeigh in Tulsa on April 8, along with an older, pale yellow Ryder truck that appeared to be privately-owned, directly contradicts the testimony of the maid at the Imperial Motel who says McVeigh was there each day.

However, phone records indicate that McVeigh made a steady series of calls up until April 7, which suddenly resumed again on the 11th. Could McVeigh have flown to Oklahoma to pick up the old Ryder truck, then have flown back to Kingman several days later? As J.D. Cash notes in the September 25, 1996 McCurtain Gazette:

It is not merely idle speculation that McVeigh flew to eastern Oklahoma or western Arkansas to pick up the second truck. Records subpoenaed by the government indicate McVeigh may have made such a trip to Fort Smith, Ark., between March 31 and April 14, 1995. Curiously, an employee of the airport taxi service in Fort Smith could not elaborate on why the taxi firm's records for that period were seized by federal agents working on what the government calls the "OKBOMB" case.

If McVeigh actually did fly from Arizona to Arkansas, then drive the truck to Kansas, then fly back to Arizona again, he apparently was a very busy man. Witness accounts and phone records put him in Oklahoma City on the 7th, in Tulsa on the 8th, in Kansas from the 10th to the 14th (although he's supposed to be in Kingman on the 11th and 12th), then back in Oklahoma City on the 14th, 15th and 16th (when he's supposedly in Kansas) then in Kansas on the 17th and 18th (when he's also seen in Oklahoma City), and finally in Oklahoma City on the 19th, the day of the bombing.

While McVeigh was supposedly seen at Terry Nichols' house in Herrington, Kansas on the 13th, witness David Snider saw his car in Oklahoma City. A Bricktown warehouse worker, Snider remembers seeing McVeigh's distinctive yellow Mercury whiz past around 2:30 p.m., not far from downtown. Snider is certain it was the same battered yellow Mercury driven by McVeigh. "I was standing there with my friend, who does auto bodywork," said Snider, "when the car went past. I turned to him and said, 'My Mom used to have a car just like that… It looks like homeboy needs a primer job.'" Snider said the car had an Oklahoma tag, as witness Gary Lewis later reported, not an Arizona tag as the FBI claims.

On Thursday, April 13, a federal employee in the Murrah Building saw two men, one of whom she later identified as McVeigh. She was riding the elevator when it stopped at the second floor. When the doors opened, there were two men in janitorial smocks waiting to get on. She didn't recognize the men as any of the regular janitors, and thought it odd that they turned away when she looked in their direction.

On Monday, April 17, janitors Katherine Woodly and Martin Johnson, who were working the 5-9 p.m. shift, saw McVeigh and his companion again. Martin said McVeigh spoke to him about a job, and the man who resembled John Doe 2 nodded to Woodly.^[306]

That same day, or possibly the following day, Debbie Nakanashi, an employee at the Post Office across from the Murrah Building, saw the pair when they stopped by and asked where they might find federal job applications. It was Nakanashi who provided the description for the well-known profile sketch of John Doe 2 in the baseball cap.

Craig Freeman, a retired Air Force master sergeant who works in the same office as Dr. Heath, was one of the people who saw McVeigh in Oklahoma when he was supposedly in Kansas. Freeman recalls sharing the elevator with a man who resembled McVeigh on Friday, April 14. "The guy was tall… What struck me is his hair was cut real low. I thought he was a skinhead." Freeman, who is black, said 'Hey man, how's it going?' "And he looked at me like he was just disgusted with me being there. Most people in the building speak to each other, you know, so I spoke to this guy, and he looked at me like… pure hate."

About a week and a half before the bombing, a HUD employee named Joan was riding the elevator with a man she described as Timothy McVeigh. What struck her was the man's strict military demeanor. He stared straight ahead making no eye-contact or conversation. "He won't last long in this building," Joan thought to herself.^[307]

The Friday before the bombing, when Craig Freeman walked out of the building to mail his taxes, he saw an individual he believes to have been Terry Nichols, "because he looked just like the picture of him," said Freeman. "He was standing there, he had a blue plaid shirt on. He was standing in the front of the building — he was just standing there, looking kind of confused. You know, how somebody looks when they're nervous."

Was the man in the elevator Freeman was describing actually Timothy McVeigh? According to phone records obtained from the Dreamland Motel, McVeigh made several phone calls from his room on the morning of Friday, April 14. Is it still possible that McVeigh drove down to Oklahoma City in the afternoon?

If he did, he would had to have been back in Kansas by early next morning. Barbara Whittenberg, owner of the Santa Fe Trail Diner in Herrington, remembers serving breakfast to Nichols, McVeigh, and John Doe 2 around 6:00 a.m. on Saturday.

"I asked them why they had a Ryder truck outside," said Whittenberg. "I wasn't being nosy, I just wondered if Terry Nichols was moving. My sister was moving here, and she needed to find a place. Well, the guy who they haven't arrested yet — John Doe #2 — he blurted out that they were going to Oklahoma. When that happened, it was like someone threw ice water on the conversation… McVeigh and Nichols just stared at the guy"^[308]

A dancer in Junction City, Kansas had the same experience as Whittenberg, when four of the suspects stopped by the Hollywood Supper Club around 10:30 that evening. The dancer, who we'll call Sherrie, definitely recognized two of the men as McVeigh and Nichols.

"The only reason I really remember it," said Sherrie, "is just because I had a conversation with one of them about Oklahoma, and my husband's family is from Oklahoma. He said they were planing a trip down there, and he said — I think it was for hunting or something.… then one of them kind of gave him a look, and they changed the subject.…"

Sherrie also said one of the men, who was quiet and sat in the corner, appeared to be Middle-Eastern. The other was Hispanic or part Hispanic, and was friendly. When he mentioned Oklahoma, Nichols shot him a hard look.^[309]

Additionally, while the records at Elliott's Body Shop indicate that "Bob Kling" rented his truck on April 17, Barbara Whittenberg saw the truck outside her restaurant on the 15th. Later that day she saw it at Geary State Fishing Lake, along with three people and a light-colored car, possibly a Thunderbird, with Arizona tags.^[310]

Backing up Whittenberg is Lee McGowan, owner of the Dreamland Motel in Junction City, where McVeigh stayed from April 14 to April 17. McGowan told the FBI that McVeigh was in possession of his truck the day before "Kling" allegedly rented his. She remembered the day clearly because it was Easter Sunday.

McGowan's son, Eric, as well as motel resident David King and his mother, also stated that they saw McVeigh driving an older faded yellow Ryder truck at the motel around 4 p.m. on April 16.^[311]

Yet McGowan's testimony contradicts that of Phyliss Kingsley and Linda Kuhlman, who worked at the Hi-Way Grill in Newcastle, just south of Oklahoma City. The two women saw McVeigh and three companions around 6:00 p.m. on April 16, when they stopped in the restaurant and ordered hamburgers and fries to go. The two women distinctly recall the Ryder truck pulling into the restaurant at SW 104th and Portland, accompanied by a white Chevy long-bed pick-up, and an older, darker, possibly blue pick-up, which may have belonged to Terry Nichols. Accompanying McVeigh was a short, stocky, handsome man, of either Mexican or American Indian descent. The man closely resembled the FBI sketch of John Doe 2, they said.^[312]

According to the FBI, this was the same day that McVeigh called Nichols from a pay phone at Tim's Amoco in Herrington, Kansas at 3:08 p.m., and asked him to drive him to Oklahoma City. It would have been impossible for McVeigh and Nichols to drive from Junction City to Oklahoma City in less than four hours.

Reports soon surfaced that "McVeigh" had stayed at a motel south of downtown Oklahoma City on the night of the 18th. Witnesses recall seeing a yellow Ryder truck, and two companions. They recall that "McVeigh" gave them a "go to hell look" as he pulled away.

Later that morning, at 8:35 a.m., Tulsa banker Kyle Hunt was driving to an appointment when he came upon the Ryder truck at Main and Broadway, trailed by a yellow Mercury. "…for some reason I thought they were out of state, moving and lost in downtown Oklahoma City," said Hunt. "I felt sorry for them and then when I pulled up beside them, I got that cold icy stare from a guy that had a real short GI haircut…."^[313]

Hunt described the driver of the Mercury as Timothy McVeigh. "He gave me that icy, go-to-hell look," said Hunt. "It kind of unnerved me." While Hunt didn't see the occupants of the truck, he did recall two passengers in the Mercury. The rear occupant, said Hunt, had long hair, similar to the suspect Phyliss Kingsley and Linda Kuhlman saw on Sunday at the Hi-Way Grill south of the city.

Around the same time as Hunt saw this convoy, David Snider, a warehouse worker in Bricktown, a few blocks southeast of downtown, saw a heavily loaded Ryder truck with two men inside, slowly making its way towards him. Snider had been expecting a delivery that morning, and explained that people sometimes get lost because the loading dock is on a different street than the warehouse. The time was 8:35 a.m. Thinking the truck was his delivery, Snider waved them down. Snider, who by now was gesticulating wildly, became frustrated as the two men, staring at him, continued on their way.

While he never received his delivery, Snider did get a good look at the truck, and the two men. The truck appeared to be an older model with a cab overhang, not the newer version the FBI claimed was destroyed in the bombing.

Snider described the driver as a barrel-chested, dark-skinned male with long, straight black hair, parted in the middle, wearing a thin small mustache. The man, who was also wearing tear-drop style sunglasses and a dark shirt, was of American Indian or Hispanic decent. (See sketch) "I lived in New Mexico for years," said Snider; "I know the look." The passenger, wearing a white T-shirt, Snider said, was Timothy McVeigh.

"He looked at me like 'who the hell are you?' — real attitude," recalls Snider, and began yelling profanities at the loading-dock worker. Snider, who was not in a great mood that morning to begin with, yelled back, "Fuck you, you skin-head motherfucker!"

Snider and Hunt weren't the only individuals who saw McVeigh and the Ryder truck that morning. At 8:40 a.m., Mike Moroz and Brian Marshall were busy at work at Johnny's Tire Store on 10th and Hudson, when a yellow Ryder truck pulled in looking for directions to the Murrah Building. The driver, who Moroz later identified as Timothy McVeigh, was wearing a white T-shirt and a black ball cap on backwards. Moroz caught a glimpse of the passenger — a stocky man with dark curly hair, a tattoo on his upper left arm, and a ball cap worn similar to McVeigh's. The passenger, said Moroz, stared straight ahead, never turning to look in his direction.^[314]

Moroz then proceeded to give directions to McVeigh, whom he described as polite, friendly, and relaxed — quite interesting considering that McVeigh is supposedly minutes away from murdering 169 people. After thanking Moroz, McVeigh got back in the truck, sat there for a few minutes, then took off in the direction of the Federal Building.

At approximately the same time as McVeigh was seen driving the Mercury by Kyle Hunt, and seen as a passenger in the Ryder truck by David Snider, and seen driving the Ryder truck by Mike Moroz, he was then seen driving the Mercury by attorney James Linehan.

As previously discussed, Linehan, a Midwest City attorney, was stopped at a red light at the northwest corner of 4th and Robinson, one block from the Murrah Building. Late for an appointment, Linehan looked at his watch. It read 8:38 a.m. When he looked back up, he noticed a pale yellow Mercury stopped beside him. While he could not positively I.D. the driver, he described him as having sharp, pointed features, and smooth pale skin.

A second later, the Mercury driver gunned his engine, ran the red light, and disappeared into the underground parking garage of the Murrah Building.

Is it possible these witnesses are describing are two different people? In Snider's account, the driver is an American Indian or Hispanic man with long, straight black hair, wearing sunglasses. The passenger is McVeigh. Neither one is wearing a ball cap. The time is 8:35 a.m. In Moroz's account, the driver is McVeigh, while the passenger is a stocky man with short curly hair. Both men are wearing ball caps on backwards. The time is 8:40 a.m.

Snider and Moroz both saw a Ryder truck containing Timothy McVeigh, yet with completely different companions. While Snider was yelling at McVeigh in the Ryder truck in Bricktown, Hunt was watching the truck being trailed by McVeigh in the Mercury several blocks away. A few minutes later, Linehan watched as the Mercury drove into the Murrah Building garage.

Moreover, each witness saw these convoys at approximately the same time. It is possible that the heavily loaded truck seen by Snider could have made it from 25 East California in Bricktown to 10th and Hudson in five minutes. But in order to do so, they would have had to drop off one man, pick up another, exchange places in the truck, and put on ball caps. Then they would have to drive a distance of approximately 25 blocks — during morning rush hour traffic. Possible, but not too likely.

Is it possible one of these witnesses has his story wrong? Well, if he does, he has it really wrong. How could an apparently credible witnesses mistake a short-curly-haired man with a black ball cap for a long-straight-haired man with tear-drop sunglasses? One who is clearly the passenger, the other who is clearly the driver? In numerous interviews with the author and other journalists, Snider went into great detail about his encounter, and never wavered.

In a taped interview with Mike Moroz, he struck me as a sincere, sober, young man. Both Linehan and Hunt are solid, professional people. It is not likely that these witnesses are relaying inaccurate information.

"Their stories really seem to check out," said video producer Chuck Allen, who interviewed many witnesses. "They go into great depth and detail about all this. If you ever meet these guys, you'll know their stories are very strong — very believable."^[315]

Researchers have also questioned why McVeigh, who had supposedly been to the Murrah Building at least three times — once on December 16, again a week and a half before the bombing, then again on April 14 — would need to ask directions to it when he was only six blocks away. But according to Moroz, who has helped more than a few lost travelers, the number of one-way streets in the downtown area often confuses people. "A lot of people get lost down here, even people who live here, he said"^[316]

Finally, HUD employee Germaine Johnston was walking through an alley approximately two blocks from the Murrah Building about 15 minutes after the blast, when she ran into McVeigh and another man. "They were just standing there watching," said Johnston.

McVeigh then asked the dazed passerby "Was anyone killed?" When Johnston answered that numerous people had been killed, including many children, McVeigh's expression suddenly turned sad. He and his companion then got up and left.^[317][318]

Mike Moroz was eventually called in to identify McVeigh in a photo line-up. Yet he was never called to testify before the Federal Grand Jury. Snider was initially interviewed by two FBI agents, including Weldon Kennedy and Rob Ricks [of Waco fame], but was never brought in to a line-up or called to testify before the Federal Grand Jury.

Considering he had close and sustained contact with "McVeigh" and several of his associates, Dr. Heath should have been a key prosecution witness. Yet the FBI never called Dr. Heath in to identify McVeigh in a line-up. Nor was Dr. Heath ever called before the Federal Grand Jury. Nor was Freeman ever called in to see a line-up, or before the grand jury. Linehan, Hunt, Johnston, and numerous other witnesses were likewise never called.

On May 10, the Los Angeles Times reported, "Investigators said authorities theorize that John Doe 2 could be two people, and that McVeigh and his alleged conspirators could have used different men to accompany him in order to serve as 'decoys' and confuse investigators trying to trace his movements."^[319]

The Los Angeles Times report, which would tend to account for the two different trucks, only gives half the story. What they aren't saying is that not only were there at least two John Doe 2s — there apparently were two "Timothy McVeighs." One was probably a double.

The use of doubles in espionage work is not new. In fact, the use of impostors, look-alikes and doubles was well-documented in the JFK and Martin Luther King assassinations.

Like the "Lee Harvey Oswald" who was seen filing out numerous job applications in New Orleans, "McVeigh" was seen going floor-to-floor in the Federal Building in Oklahoma. Except that the "Oswald" who filled out job applications listed his height as 5' 9", while the real Oswald's height was 5' 11."

According to employees at Elliott's Body Shop in Junction City, the "McVeigh" (alias "Kling") who rented the truck on April 17 was of medium build, 5' 10" to 5' 11" and weighed 180-185 pounds. Elliott's employee Tom Kessinger stated on his FBI FD-383 report that the man had a "rough" complexion with "acne."^[320] (See Appendix)

The only problem is, Timothy McVeigh is 6' 2," weighs 160 pounds, and has a totally clear complexion. Another shop employee, Vicki Beemer, said the man had a deformed chin, unlike the real McVeigh.^[321]

Nevertheless, federal prosecutors would claim that a "little curlicue" on the "K" in "Kling's" signature was indicative of McVeigh's handwriting. Yet if McVeigh was the same person who rented the truck at Elliott's on the 17th, why didn't he also use an alias while signing the motel register? While the "McVeigh" who rented the truck listed his name as "Bob Kling," 428 Malt Drive, Redfield, SD, the "McVeigh" who checked into the Dreamland, right down the street, signed his name as "Tim McVeigh," and listed his address as 3616 North Van Dyke Road, Decker, Michigan, the home of James Nichols.^[322]

If McVeigh was planning on committing such a heinous crime, certainly he would not leave such a blatantly incriminating trail of evidence. This makes about as much sense as McVeigh going from floor-to-floor in the Murrah Building filling out job applications and announcing his name. Or telling a dancer in Tulsa, "You're going to remember me on April 19th."

These preposterous scenes were practically identical to those of all-time patsy Lee Harvey Oswald. In early November of 1963, a "Lee Harvey Oswald" applied for a job as a parking lot attendant at the Southland Hotel. During his interview with the manager, he asked if there was a good view of downtown Dallas from the hotel.^[323]

On January 20, 1961, two men, one representing himself as "Lee Harvey Oswald," walked into the Bolton Ford dealership in New Orleans and requested a bid for 10 pick-up trucks, ostensibly for the Friends of Democratic Cuba Committee. The only problem was, Lee Harvey Oswald was in Russia at the time.^[324]

Then in September of 1963, a man purporting to be "Lee Harvey Oswald" showed up at the Mexican Consulate in New Orleans. According to Mrs. Fenella Farrington, "Oswald" said, "What do you have to do to take firearms or a gun into Mexico?"

A "Lee Harvey Oswald" subsequently phoned, then showed up at the Soviet embassy in Mexico City, speaking with a trade consultant who was allegedly a member of the KGB's "liquid affairs" bureau (hit squad). The CIA later turned over to the Warren Commission a surveillance snapshot of a man they claimed was Oswald at the Soviet embassy. The man looked nothing like Oswald.

On April 17, 1995, a "Bob Kling" showed up at Elliott's Body Shop in Junction City, Kansas and rented a Ryder truck. Yet according to surveillance footage taken from a nearby McDonalds, McVeigh was sitting in the restaurant eating a hamburger at the time. He was wearing completely different clothes than those ascribed to "Kling."

Yet the FBI contends that McVeigh left the restaurant 20 minutes before the truck was rented, walked the 1.3 miles to Elliott's — a fifteen-minute walk — in a light rain, then showed up at Elliott's nice and dry, wearing completely different clothes.

In November of 1963, a "Lee Oswald" walked into the downtown Lincoln Mercury dealership in Dallas announcing his intention to buy a Mercury Comet. According to the salesman, Albert Bogard, "Mr. Oswald" took him on a wild test drive, speeding along at 60 to 70 miles an hour. After he was told the amount of the down payment, another salesman, Eugene Wilson, heard "Oswald" say, "Maybe I'm going to have to go back to Russia to buy a car."

During the Warren Commission hearings, salesman Frank Pizzo described the customer as 5' 8" tall. When the Warren Commission showed Pizzo a photo of Oswald taken after his arrest, he said, "I have to say that he is not the one…"^[325]

After the bombing in Oklahoma City, ATF informant Carol Howe told the FBI that she recognized the two men on the FBI's original wanted posters as Peter Ward and Michael Brescia — two Elohim City residents. She said that neither man was Tim McVeigh.^[326]

In early November of 1963, Mrs. Lovell Penn of Dallas found three men firing a rifle on her property. After they left, she found a spent cartridge bearing the name "Mannlicher-Carcanno," the rifle that the Warren Commission claimed Oswald used to perform his historic feat of marksmanship in Dealy Plaza.

As District Attorney Jim Garrison later noted, "These scenes were about as subtle as roaches trying to sneak across a white rug."

No less subtle were the scenes and events leading up to the Oklahoma City bombing. It is highly possible that the man Dr. Heath saw in the Murrah Building a week and-a-half before the bombing was not Timothy McVeigh at all, but a double. The scenario of Timothy McVeigh — the alleged "lone nut" bomber — going from floor-to-floor in the target building announcing his name while leaving a paper trail is beyond credulity.

Like Oswald, who repeatedly telephoned, then appeared at the Soviet embassy in Mexico, McVeigh would telephone Elohim City — a white separatist compound — just before the bombing, asking to speak to Andy Strassmeir.

Like Oswald, who left behind a diary of his "Left-leaning" writings, McVeigh purportedly left intentions of his plans to bomb other targets in the glove compartment of his car — a car which could be easily recognized and traced to him.

Like Oswald who, after purportedly killing the president of the United States, walked into a movie house without paying, purposely attracting the attention of the police, McVeigh would speed down the highway at 80 miles an hour without a license plate, purposefully attracting the attention of the Highway Patrol. He would then meekly hand himself over for arrest, not even attempting to draw his Glock 9mm pistol on the approaching cop, whom he could have easily shot and killed.

Like the Mannlicher-Carcanno rifle which Oswald purportedly bought from a mail-order supply house, and the Mannlicher-Carcanno cartridge found by Mrs. Penn, McVeigh would leave a business card from Paulsen's Military Surplus with a notation to pick up more TNT in the police cruiser after his arrest.^[327]

As Jim Garrison noted, "Some of these scenes were so preposterous only the most gullible could swallow them."

Like Oswald, who was led out of the Dallas Police Department and immediately shot by Jack Ruby, McVeigh would be led out of the Noble County Courthouse in a bright orange jumpsuit, without a bullet-proof vest, paraded before an angry crowd on the verge of violence.

Finally, like James Earl Ray, who was accused of killing Martin Luther King, Jr., we are left pondering the significance of two similar vehicles, both apparently tied to the crime. Ray had owned a white Ford Mustang, which was seen speeding away after the assassination. Yet another white Mustang was seen parked in front of Jim's Grill in Memphis, near where Ray had his car parked. The two cars were almost identical, except for two things: While Ray was wearing a suit on April 4, 1968, the driver of the other Mustang was wearing a dark blue windbreaker; while Ray's car had Alabama plates, the other car had Arkansas plates.^[328]

One is reminded of the contradictory testimony of David Snider and Mike Moroz, who saw two Ryder trucks on the morning of April 19, but with different occupants. Another interesting parallel is that while McVeigh's Mercury reportedly had Arizona tags, a white Oklahoma tag was seen by Gary Lewis dangling from one bolt as the car sped away from the scene.

In spite of the numerous discrepancies, it seemed that by a convenient string of associations, a carefully placed trail of evidence, and a carefully planned and executed operation, Timothy McVeigh was implicated as prime suspect number one in the plot to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Building.

Like Lee Harvey Oswald, who was declared the "lone assassin" within weeks, Timothy McVeigh would be declared — along with Terry Nichols — the "lone bomber" within days. On the indictments, the Justice Department would gratuitously add, "with others unknown." Yet these "others unknown" would fade from official memory as the so-called "Justice" Department withdrew the John Doe 2 sketch and the subsequent reward offer.

After his arrest, Lee Harvey Oswald announced to the television cameras, "I'm a patsy!"

After his arrest, Timothy McVeigh told the London Sunday Times he was "set up" for the bombing by the FBI because of his extreme political views.^[329]

Never since the frame-up of Lee Harvey Oswald has the media gone out of its way to portray a suspect as dangerous and malignant. While the mainstream press took their cues from the FBI, they contradicted their own journalistic common sense. The government and their mainstream media lap dogs have based their theories of Timothy McVeigh upon the flimsiest of pretenses, while ignoring the more obvious facts. The mainstream press, willing to take the Federal Government's word as gospel, has succumbed, and perpetrated, the most obvious propaganda. In so doing, they have violated every principal of thorough and honest journalism, and have become nothing but a willing tool of the corporate/intelligence establishment.

As Stephen Jones said, "Before this investigation is all over with, the government will have Tim McVeigh standing next to Lee Harvey Oswald."^[330]

Yet unlike Oswald, who was summarily executed by mob-connected police officer Jack Ruby, McVeigh has quietly and safely settled into his newfound circumstances. As the drama of his trial(s) unfold in a daily display of evidence and witnesses, Timothy McVeigh may truly believe that justice will prevail.

Terry Nichols: "Non-Resident Alien"

The image of Timothy McVeigh — the stone-faced killer — would fade in the wake of court appearances and media interviews, as Stephen Jones sought to portray his smiling and chiding client as the simple boy next door.

The enigmatic figure of Terry Nichols, however, would haunt public perception, as his attorney jealously guarded the mysterious, brooding figure from prying eyes.

It was the older, quiet, bespectacled Nichols, some theorized, who was the "brains" behind the bombing, guiding his young friend in the sinister and deadly plot.

Nichols' ex-wife, Lana Padilla, doesn't agree. "I believe that Terry bought his home, brought his family there… truly, truly… wanted to have a family and just get on with his life. I just don't think this man could have done this… I just don't think with any knowledge he could have done this."^[331]

Neighbors Bob and Sandy Papovich, long-time friends, wrote the press that Terry Nichols is a "kind, gentle, generous man absolutely incapable of violence." As Papovich told the author, "I've known Terry for over 15 years, and I've never heard this man utter the word "hell" or "damn".… Terry doesn't want to hurt anybody.… And all these people want me to believe that this man is capable of murdering hundreds of innocent people. It ain't possible."^[332]

Terry Nichols told Federal Public Defender Steve Gradert, "Heck, I've got kids, too," in response to the bombing.^[333] A peaceful person, Nichols reportedly loved children, including his son Josh, whom he maintained a close relationship with. One day, the astute thirteen-year-old told his mother he had to call the FBI. He was frantic. "I've got to tell them!"

"What do you got to tell them, Padilla asked?"

"I've got to tell them that my dad wouldn't do that. He loves children. He wouldn't do that to those children."^[334]

Yet the press would paint Terry Nichols with the same broad brush that they had used to paint Timothy McVeigh — focusing on the fact that Nichols came from a broken home, had dropped out of college, worked a series of odd jobs, and was anti-government. Like McVeigh, the media, anti-militia activists, and scores of pseudo-experts would do their best to cast Nichols in the same extremist mold — a man, authorities claimed — capable of killing 169 innocent people

The third of four children, Terry Nichols grew up on a farm near Lapeer, Michigan. His father, Robert — quiet and soft-spoken — labored hard on the family's 160-acre farm. Like his son, he also worked a series of odd jobs, doing construction, selling encyclopedias, and putting in shifts at the Pontiac and Buick plants, in an effort to keep the family afloat in a county where farming had become less and less prosperous.

His mother Joyce was a sharp contrast. Hard-drinking, often violent with explosive fits of temper, she had once rammed Robert's tractor with her car, and had threatened the local sheriff with a chain-saw. After 24 years of difficult marriage, the couple finally divorced. Padilla said Terry took it hard.^[335]

Nichols dreamed of going to medical school but his grades weren't good enough for most pre-med programs. He enrolled at Central Michigan University, but after his parents' divorce in 1974, he dropped out at the request of his mother, who needed help on the family farm in Decker. However, Nichols told friends he would never be a farmer.^[336]

Yet, like McVeigh, Nichols was an intelligent man. He passed a difficult test for a securities license with a minimum of study and preparation, but told friends he was bored with college, which he found no more challenging than high-school.

While in Decker, Nichols met his first wife, Lana Padilla, and they married in 1981. Two years later, they had a baby boy, Joshua. Shortly thereafter, Padilla's sister Kelli married Terry's brother James, and the four lived together at James's Decker, Michigan farmhouse.

Not satisfied with farm life, Nichols tried a number of different occupations. He delved into penny stocks, went on to sell insurance and real estate, managed a grain elevator, and worked occasionally as a carpenter. Nothing held his interest.

"No matter what he tried to do, every time he tried to break away, he ended up back on the farm trying to help his mother and James," said Padilla.^[337]

While Padilla devoted time to building her real estate career, Nichols cooked, cleaned house, and cared for the kids. Yet he grew increasingly restless and depressed.

"Terry got real down on life," said his father. "He didn't care what he had done…. He lost his vitality."^[338]

One afternoon Padilla brought home pamphlets from the local Army recruiting office, and laid them out on the table. When she came back, the pamphlets were gone. Like many men uncertain about their future, Nichols decided to try a career in the military.

"He was just searching for a career, something he enjoyed," Nichols' friend Sandy Papovich told the Dallas Morning News. "He thought he would like it."^[339]

It was an unusual career move for a 32-year-old man with children. Yet Nichols hoped he would be able to rise quickly through the ranks, and Padilla thought the experience would strengthen Terry and save their marriage.

On May 24, 1988, Nichols was assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia for basic training. "He said the government had made it impossible for him to make a living as a farmer," recalled assistant platoon leader Glen "Tex" Edwards. He hated the United States government. I thought it strange that a 32-year-old man would be complaining about the government, yet was now employed by the government. Nichols told me he signed up to pull his 20 years and get a retirement pension."^[340]

Because of his age and maturity, Nichols was quickly made platoon leader. The obvious discrepancy in years earned him the nickname "Old Man."

"The drill sergeant said that because Nichols was older than the rest of us, he would hopefully be more mature and able to lead the younger guys in the unit. He also had some college background and came into the Army as a PFC," said Edwards.^[341]

It was at Fort Benning that Nichols would meet Timothy McVeigh. The two men had enlisted on the same day. According to an account in the Post:

William "Dave" Dilly, who was McVeigh's roommate for about a year in the service, said McVeigh and Nichols "hit it off from the start, like Terry was his big brother. Tim was real frail and unsure of himself. Terry was the oldest guy and real sure of himself."

But the two men found they had a lot in common. McVeigh too came from a broken, blue-collar home and had an abiding interest in firearms and far-right politics. Both men fancied themselves as survivalists, and both loved to spend time on the rifle range. Both were looking for lifetime careers in the service. They quickly became friends.^[342]

Another one of their friends was Michael Fortier, who joined Nichols and McVeigh at Fort Riley. The three would spend free time together, going fishing, shooting, and sharing their political beliefs.

Yet while McVeigh would rise quickly through the ranks, Nichols' Army career stalled. It seemed his platoon leadership status had been rescinded due to a prank he and McVeigh had pulled.

Around the same time, Padilla filed for divorce, and made plans to move her real estate business to Las Vegas. On May 15, 1989, after 11 months in the service, Nichols put in for a hardship discharge due to a "family emergency" that was never publicly explained. Yet it apparently had nothing to do with his divorce. He told Padilla it was to take care of his son Josh. As Padilla later wrote, Nichols already had Josh with him at Fort Riley, where the pair lived in a house off-base. As Padilla wrote in her book, By Blood Betrayed:

I've always wondered just why he was released, less than a year after enlisting, and have always been told it was because he had to take care of Josh. But this theory never washed with me because he'd had Josh with him all along. I really believe that Josh was just a convenient excuse and that Terry had become disillusioned with the Army because he believed he would never rise through the ranks.^[343]

Perhaps Nichols' "hardship discharge" was similar to Lee Harvey Oswald's "hardship discharge" from the Marines that never was explained. And that of Thomas Martinez, the FBI infiltrator into the Silent Brotherhood (The Order), who was given an honorable discharge during basic training, which was never explained.^[344]

Even more interesting is the parallel to McVeigh's discharge after "failing" his Special Forces try-out in April of 1991. McVeigh's sudden and mysterious departure from the Army, like Nichols', was never fully explained. As suggested previously, McVeigh's sudden decision leave a brilliant military career behind may have resulted from his being "sheep-dipped" as an intelligence operative.

Yet mainstream media psychojournalists insisted that Nichols' departure from the Army was nothing more than the inevitable result of a consistent string of life-long failures.

Glen "Tex" Edwards put a slightly different spin on the matter. Edwards said that shortly before he left the Army, Nichols invited him to be part of a "private army" he said he was creating. "He told me he would be coming back to Fort Riley to start his own military organization," recalled Edwards. "He said he could get any kind of weapon and any equipment he wanted."

Nichols also said he intended to recruit McVeigh, Fortier, and others. "I can't remember the name of his organization, but he seemed pretty serious about it," Edwards said, adding that he reported Nichols' offer to the FBI shortly after the bombing.

In spite of the flamboyant tales about recruiting a private army, Nichols returned to his old life in Michigan, working for a time as a carpenter, then moving back to the farmhouse in Decker. In spite of his short career in the Army, or perhaps because of it, Nichols developed a deep distrust of the Federal Government.

It was a feeling that was shared by his brother James, who, as a farmer, had suffered through the worst of the floods of the late '70s and early '80s, and blamed the Federal Government for failing to provide adequate disaster relief. Nichols, along with his Sanilac country neighbors, witnessed dozens of farm foreclosures as a result. It was the Federal Government's policies that led to the rise of such far-Right groups as the American Agricultural Movement and the anti-tax Posse Comitatus. As the Post writes:

Many residents around Decker said they share Terry and James's angry politics, but are less vocal because they fear government retribution. "Much of what the Nichols brothers believe is not that different or radical from what lots of people around here think," said local truck driver Jack Bean. "We feel our liberties and freedoms are being chipped away at and we want all this authority off our backs. The difference between the Nichols and others in this community is that they are just not afraid to say what they think, to challenge what is wrong."^[345]

In spite of their differences, Terry and James had a lot in common. Both were fathers, had married sisters, and had suffered through difficult divorces. Both shared an ideological distrust of the Federal Government.

James studied the Constitution, Black's Law Dictionary and the Uniform Commercial Codes. He read the works of Jefferson and Paine and was particularly inspired by Jefferson's maxim, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Perhaps not coincidentally, this passage was discovered in McVeigh's car upon his arrest. It would later be read into evidence at his trial.

Both Terry and James also held a view shared by many beleaguered farmers: that the Federal Reserve was not empowered to coin money, and that U.S. currency printed after 1930, when the nation went into debt, was valueless. Following the advice of financial books that warned of an imminent crash, the brothers put their money into precious metals such as silver and gold.

Yet their activities took still more dramatic turns. In 1990 James tried to renounce his citizenship, and plastered his car with anti-government and Second Amendment bumper stickers.

Terry purchased a pick-up truck and decided not to register it, instead, making his own tag and placing it on front. Both men renounced their driver's licenses.

In March of 1994, Terry sent a dramatic affidavit to the Evergreen Township claiming himself to be a "Non-Resident Alien" private citizen not bound by the laws of the U.S. government. (See Appendix) He also renounced his voting rights due to "…total corruption in the entire political system from the local government on up through and including the president of the United States of America, George Bush."^[346]

While he may have been right in principle, his activity was not condoned by the local authorities. In 1992, Chase Manhattan Bank went after Nichols for racking up $17,860 in unpaid credit card debts. The largely out-of-work farmer had spent over $35,000, using Chase and First Deposit National Bank cards, on farm equipment, personal effects, and airline tickets.

He attempted to pay off the debts with his own "Certified Fractional Reserve Check," a bogus check distributed widely among farmers by a group called Family Farm Preservation. He signed the check, "Explicitly reserving all my rights, Terry L. Nichols." He then sent the bank a letter retroactively revoking his signature from the credit card contract.

"There are two sides to that man, maybe many more," said Dennis Reid, a Sandusky, Mich., lawyer who has observed Nichols and his brother, James, during court proceedings in Michigan. "Jim to me I really expect is kind of a sissy. He was always shaking when he'd go into the courtroom and spout off," attorney Dennis Reid said. "Terry seemed to be more level-headed. He was still saying things that were strange, but he was certainly more cold and more calculating."^[347]

Terry definitely didn't seem "level-headed" when he went to court to answer the lawsuit by Chase. He refused to come before the bench, shouting to Judge Donald Teeple from the back of the room that the court had no jurisdiction over him. During the hearing, the bitter and sarcastic defendant accused the bank of fraud. "They knowingly and willingly know how to make credit out of nothing and make interest on it and actually steal people's hard earned money," he told the Judge. "They gave me valueless nothing for something they want to take from me that has value. That's not right, is it?"

He claimed to have determined that the bank's business was based upon "fraud and misrepresentation, collusion, color of law, conspiracy, enticement, inducement, seduction, duress, coercion, mistake [and] bankruptcy," and he filed a counterclaim against First Deposit and its attorneys for $50,000 or 14,200 ounces of silver. Nichols charged the bank with "mental and emotional damage, loss of happiness and the unjust destroying of credit history… by wanton acts when no probable cause existed."^[348]

The judge was not impressed. He accused Nichols of playing with words and ordered him to pay the debt. Nichols didn't pay.

When FBI agents questioned Lana Padilla after Nichols' arrest, they asked her a curious question: Did Nichols ever dye his hair? The Bureau had been investigating a string of bank robberies throughout the Midwest. One of the robbers had dyed his hair, and was Nichols height and weight.

The group, known as the Midwest Bank Bandits, had robbed over a quarter-of-a-million dollars from more than 22 banks between January, 1994 and December, 1995 in a spree that took them across six states, including Kansas. The bandits were tied to a group of men who made their temporary home at Elohim City, a far-Right religious compound in Southeastern Oklahoma. McVeigh and his friend Michael Fortier were known to have visited the compound. Some of the men were also seen in Kansas with the bombing defendants. (See Chapter 4)

If the FBI's question came as a shock to Padilla, she would turn pale when she opened her ex-husband's storage locker on December 15, 1994, and discovered wigs, masks, and pantyhose. The Mid-West Bank Bandits had worn masks.

Could Nichols have been robbing banks? "Not the Terry I knew," said Padilla. "I was just speculating, but everything that has come out about that side of Terry was a total… maybe I just turned my face and never noticed it, never wanted to notice it, but… I never thought of him… of course I never would have thought of him sleeping with a gun under him either."^[349]

Yet considering Nichols' hatred of banks and his rallying cry against the monetary system, it would not be too far-fetched a scenario. Such speculation is bolstered by the fact that McVeigh sent his sister a letter in December of '93 informing her that he was part of a group that had been robbing banks. Although he himself didn't admit to taking part in any of the robberies, he asked her to "launder" three $100 bills that "they" had stolen.

McVeigh returned to Decker, Michigan in the Spring of 1993 to see his old Army friend Nichols. Just back from Waco, where he had witnessed the carnage inflicted upon the Branch Davidians, McVeigh was instilled with a new sense of urgency and rage. At the Nichols farm, he would find like-minded souls who shared his frustration.

By the Fall of '93, McVeigh was living at the farmhouse, helping with the chores, and reportedly urging the Nichols brothers onto more militant activities. The men practiced target shooting and setting off small bombs on the property.

"You know how little boys like to play with things that blow up?" recalled [neighbor Phil] Morawski. "That was what they were like. And everything they mixed out there in the cornfields seemed to work."

The government would focus heavily on this activity later on.

According to Michigan Militia members, the Nichols brothers also began attending meetings, but the militia found their rhetoric too strong. Michigan Militia member John Simpson recalled: "Terry came to one of our meetings and wanted to talk about a tax revolt, having to have a drivers license and eliminating the government. We did not believe in his tactics — particularly the stuff about a revolt."^[350] James reportedly talked about the "necessity" of taking on police officers, judges and lawyers. Apparently, McVeigh accompanied Nichols to some of the meetings.

According to Time magazine, McVeigh and the Nichols brothers went on to organize their own militia:

…the three men formed their own cell of the "Patriots," a self-styled paramilitary group that James Nichols had been affiliated with since 1992 when he began attending meetings in a nearby town. The trio decided to recruit members and establish other cells around the area, but determined that for security reasons no unit should grow larger than eight members.^[351]

If this account is accurate, it would tend to jive with what Nichols told Army buddy Glen "Tex" Edwards about "recruiting" his own private army. Perhaps one of Nichols' recruits was Craig O'Shea, who lived just off Highway 77 in Herrington. A friend of Nichols who was kicked out of the service, O'Shea used to work for Barbara Whittenberg, who owns the Sante Fe Trail Diner in Herrington. Whittenberg described O'Shea as a "demolitions expert," and said she saw him occasionally with Nichols. "He's a very violent man," said Whittenberg, who said O'Shea had once threatened to kill her and her husband.^[352]

In March of '94, Nichols took a job at the Donahue ranch in Marion, Kansas.

Co-worker Tim Donahue recalled that Nichols worked long hours, sometimes six days a week, without complaint and appeared to enjoy his job, which he did well. Nichols would grouse about taxes and the government conspiring to seize people's firearms. One day when Nichols and Donahue were talking about the use of fertilizer in farming, Nichols mentioned that he knew how to make a bomb.^[353]

Four months later, in August of '94, Nichols gave Donahue 30 days notice. His dream of setting up a private army metamorphosized into simply supplying that army. He told Donahue he was going into the army surplus business with a friend. On September 30, that friend — Timothy McVeigh — showed up to help him pack.

It was during this period that his ex-wife began picking up strange signals from her former husband.

Earlier in the month, he had called her from Kansas. "He was very upset," she said. "He was very emphatic. He talked about Waco and that shooting at the White House (where a Colorado Springs man fired a gun toward the White House). He said, 'You know, that guy wasn't all wrong. There's going to be some civil unrest in this country.'"^[354]

During one of his frequent visits to Padilla's house in Las Vegas, Nichols displayed his Glock .45. "I never knew him to carry a gun," Padilla told the Denver Post. "He liked guns and collected them, but this was new. He acted like he was afraid for his life. He slept with it on."^[355]

Traveling the gun show circuit with McVeigh, Nichols was now a virtual nomad, living out of his pick-up. His few remaining possessions were stored in a locker in Las Vegas. He also told Padilla that he was he was switching the beneficiary of his life insurance policy from her to his new wife, Marife.

A 17-year-old Filipino mail-order bride, Marife Torres met Nichols through Paradise Shelton Tours, of Scottsdale, Arizona. The young woman looked forward to leaving her life of poverty in Cebu City, Philippines, where the unemployment rate often topped 40 percent. After a year of exchanging heartfelt letters, they married on November 20, 1990 in a small restaurant in Cebu City. Yet it took over four months of bureaucratic hassles and red tape to arrange Marife's entry into the U.S.

"That one episode soured Terry on government," his father recalled. "He originally told me it would take six weeks for her to come here… but it was red tape, red tape, red tape."

At first the newlyweds tried life on the Decker farm, where Jason, Marife's son by a former boyfriend, was born on September 21, 1991. Yet Marife found herself "working like a maid," cooking and cleaning for "three husbands," Terry, James, and Tim, who often stayed at the house. She wrote her friend Vilma Eulenberg that she thought the place was haunted, and resented McVeigh, who she thought was a bad influence on her husband.

The couple eventually moved to warm, sunny Las Vegas, but Marife missed her Philippine home. To accommodate his new wife, Nichols moved to Cebu City. But the noise, heat and smog was too much for him, and in mid-1993, after barely a month in the Philippines, they moved back to the States, shuttling back and forth between Michigan and Nevada.

Nicole, their first common child, was born on August 1, 1993.

Two months later, on November 22, tragedy struck, when 26-month-old Jason accidentally suffocated to death in a plastic bag. While Marife wondered if Terry was capable of killing a child, Padilla assured her he was not, then hinted darkly in her book that McVeigh may have been responsible for the death.She neglected to mention the fact that McVeigh and James had tried to revive the youngster for nearly half-an-hour, then called the paramedics.

A month later, the couple moved to Las Vegas, where they rented a condominium for $550 a month. It was during this period that Marife began traveling to the Philippines to finish her physical therapy degree. According to Padilla, Terry also traveled to the Philippines about four times a year over a four year period. She wrote that he sometimes traveled to Cebu City without taking Marife, whom he occasionally left behind.

"Sometimes he went when Marife was in Kansas. It didn't make sense, but I never asked why."^[356]

Padilla subsequently told me in July of 1996, "I have not known him to leave her here and just go to the Philippines. If he made a trip by himself, it was because she was already there."^[357]

Whichever account is true, Nichols did travel to Cebu City in late November to meet with "potential business partners." According to Padilla, Nichols was making arrangements to bring back "butterflies."

"One time he brought back butterflies — little butterflies that they make over there — he brought them back here to sell."^[358]

Butterflies. Curious merchandise for a man trying to set himself up in the military surplus business.^[359]*

Then on November 22, 1994 Nichols made a final visit to the Philippines to visit Marife. His parting words to Josh left the 12-year old convinced he was never going to see his dad again. As he got into the car with Padilla after dropping his father off at the airport, he started crying.

"What's the matter?" Padilla asked.

"I'm never going to see my dad again. I'm never going to see my dad again."

"Of course you will," Padilla said reassuringly. "He's gone to the Philippines a lot of times. You know he always comes back."

"This time is different," he blurted through big tears.^[360]

Nichols called his ex-wife from Los Angeles several hours later. "Had a little excitement at the airport after you left," he said, laughing. He told Padilla that airport security had stopped him for trying to sneak a pair of stun guns through the metal detector. They called the cop on duty who ran Nichols' name through the computer. Although he had several outstanding traffic warrants, the police let him continue on his way.

Just why was Nichols attempting to carry stun guns on an international flight? According to Bob Papovich, Terry was afraid of the high crime rate in poverty-stricken Cebu City. He also said that Nichols was afraid of Marife's ex-boyfriend. Jason, her son by this man, had died while in Nichols' custody. The ex-boyfriend had allegedly threatened to kill him should he return.

Yet Padilla doesn't think the story is credible. "I think it's something they dreamed up," she said. Yet upon his return he told Padilla that he could get "killed down there" and he was never going back.^[361]

Obviously, somebody was out to hurt Terry Nichols, possibly kill him. When he departed for Cebu City, he left a mysterious package for his ex-wife, saying, "If I'm not back in 60 days, open it and follow the instructions." At first, Padilla did as she was told. But her instincts eventually took over.

"I was uneasy about his warning, and Josh's, 'I'll never see my dad again' kept echoing in my brain."^[362]

Padilla had secured the package in her office safe. Now she slipped quietly into the conference room, opened the lock, and laid the mysterious brown paper bag on the table. It stared ominously back at her. As she ripped it open, nearly a dozen keys slid out onto the table. She didn't recognize any of them.

There was Terry's life insurance policy with a note saying he had changed the beneficiary from her to Marife, and two handwritten lists saying "Read and Do Immediately." One of the lists directed her to a storage locker in Las Vegas:

All items in storage are for Joshua. The round items are his when he turns 21, all else now.…

The note also instructed her to remove a small plastic bag taped behind a utensil drawer in Nichols' kitchen:

All items in plastic bag are to be sent to Marife, for Nicole, if for any reason my life insurance doesn't pay her. Otherwise, half goes to Josh and half to Marife.

She removed a letter to McVeigh's sister, Jennifer. Inside the letter to Jennifer was another one stamped and addressed to McVeigh:

Tim:

If you should receive this letter, then clear everything out of CG 37 by 01 Feb 95 or pay to keep it longer, under Ted Parker of Decker. This letter has been written & sealed before I left (21 Nov 94) and being mailed by Lana as per my instructions to her in writing. This is all she knows. It would be a good idea to write or call her to verify things. [address redacted] Just ask for Lana (card enclosed). Your on your own. Go for it!!

Terry

Also Liquidate 40

At the bottom it read, "As far as I know, this letter would be for the purpose of my death."

"Why would he write that letter?" asked Padilla. "He has been there so many times. Never — ever, has he written a letter like that. Never — ever."^[363]

Two weeks later, on December 15, Padilla and her oldest son, Barry, drove to Nichols' apartment. Following Nichols' instructions, Barry reached behind the kitchen drawer and pulled out a plastic bag. It was crammed full of twenties and hundreds — a total of $20,000 cash.

Already in a state of shock, the pair drove to the AAAABCO storage facility and nervously fumbled with the lock. They were stunned when they opened the door.

…there were wigs, masks, panty hose, freeze-dried food, and various gold coins (obviously the "round" objects for Josh), along with gold bars and silver bullion stacked neatly in boxes. There were also some small green stones that appeared to be jade. I estimated at least $60,000 street value in precious metals!^[364]

There was also a large ring with what appeared to be safe deposit box keys.

Two months later, on January 16, Nichols returned from the Philippines, alive and well. "Where's the package?" he asked Padilla.

"I opened it," she stated boldly.

"Why?!" he exclaimed. "You betrayed my trust. I told you not to open it for sixty days."

"Because I was frightened. I thought something terrible had happened to you. I thought you were dead. And where did you get all that money?"

The couple then argued over finances, but Nichols wouldn't explain the mysterious letters, or where he had gotten the cash, the gold, and the safe deposit box keys. She didn't ask about the wigs, the masks, and the pantyhose, and he didn't tell her. But she was worried nonetheless.

"I think those letters were written because there is somebody bigger than any of us will ever know involved in this," said Padilla. "Why did he change his beneficiary on his life insurance? It wasn't because her boyfriend might take a pot-shot at him… and then he said in that letter not to say a word to Josh until it's all taken care of… what the hell is he talking about? It isn't the boyfriend."^[365]

If the boyfriend story is untrue, perhaps Nichols' "butterfly" partners were out to get him.

Or perhaps it was someone else, someone bigger and more dangerous. Such players aren't hard to come by in Cebu City, home to a number of terrorists groups such as the Liberation Army of the Philippines, the Communist Huk, and the Abu Sayyaf, an organization with close ties to the Mujahadeen and World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef.

Was Nichols meeting with terrorists in the Philippines? Incredibly, FBI 302 reports and investigations conducted by McVeigh's defense team indicate that Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad, Wali Khan Amin Shah, and several other terrorists met in Davao, on the Island of Mindanao, in late 1992 or early 1993, to discuss the Oklahoma City bombing plot.

One of the men at the meeting, recalled an Abu Sayyaf leader, introduced himself as "a farmer."^[366]

When the "farmer" returned from his November, 1994 trip, and discovered that Padilla had opened the package and read the letter, he turned "white as a ghost," then immediately began making a series of desperate calls to a boarding house in Cebu City.

Curiously, Nichols would call his party, have a brief 34-second conversation, then hang up and immediately redial the number 14 consecutive times, letting it ring each time. This he repeated on January 31, with nine calls and one 14-minute conversation; then on February 14 he placed 22 calls within a 40-minute time-period, with one 23-minute conversation; then on the 28th he made 31 calls within three hours, with no conversations; then finally on March 7 and 14 he made two calls, speaking 24 minutes each.^[367]

Since Nichols didn't time-out these consecutive calls (as one would tend to do if there was no answer or the line were busy), but made one call right after the other, is it possible he was sending some sort of signal or code?^[368]

Helen Malaluan, who runs the boarding house, told me Nichols was probably trying to reach Marife, who she said was staying there at the time. Her brother Ernesto also said that boarders from the island of Mindanao often stayed at the house. The Abu Sayyaf, coincidentally, is headquartered in Mindanao. Was Nichols using Marife to send a message to someone else?

In February of '95, Terry and Marife moved to Herrington, Kansas, where Nichols purchased a modest home for $25,000.

"We all thought he was just a little bit different," Herrington real estate agent Georgia Rucker said. "We had to pry any information out of him."^[369]

In Herrington, Nichols appeared to settle down. He attended army surplus auctions at nearby Fort Riley and tried to make a living selling army surplus gear.

"He spent the morning of April 19, around Herrington, picking up business cards, registering his truck with the state, and calling on a couple of local shops, asking about their interest in buying government surplus," said Padilla. "Those are not the actions of a guilty man."^[370]

But are they?

On September 30, the same day that Nichols quit the Donahue ranch, someone using the name "Mike Havens" purchased 40 50-pound bags of ammonium nitrate from the Mid-Kansas Co-op in McPhearson. Although employees never positively identified Nichols as the customer, a receipt with McVeigh's fingerprint was found in Nichols' home. The FBI asserts that the fertilizer was kept in a storage shed in nearby Herrington, rented by Nichols under the alias "Shawn Rivers."^[371]

Then, that same weekend, 299 dynamite sticks, 544 blasting caps, detonator cord, and a quantity of an explosive called Tovex were stolen from the Martin Marietta Aggregates rock quarry just north of Marion. Marion County Sheriff Ed Davies testified at McVeigh's trial that he found metal shavings and tumblers on the ground in front of the magazines. FBI Agent James Cadigal, an FBI firearms and tool marks identification specialist, said that a drill bit in Nichols' home matched the signature of the hole drilled into the lock.

Finally, Lori Fortier, Michael Fortier's wife, testified that McVeigh told them that he and Nichols had broken into the quarry.^[372]

On October 18, 1994, 40 additional 50-pound bags of ammonium nitrate were purchased from the Mid-Kansas Co-op by "Havens." Havens was reportedly driving a dark-colored pickup with a light-colored camper top — the kind owned by Terry Nichols. (Another version of the story has a red trailer attached to the truck, which didn't appear to be Nichols') The FBI believed the fertilizer was stored in a locker in Council Grove — number 40 — rented the previous day by "Joe Kyle." This apparently was the "liquidate 40" that Nichols referred to in his mysterious note to McVeigh.

Jennifer McVeigh later testified that when her brother visited Lockport in November of '94, he confided to her that he had been driving around with 1,000 pounds of explosives. Could these "explosives" have been the ammonium nitrate purchased at the Mid-Kansas Co-op?

Then on November 5, 1994, several masked men robbed gun dealer Roger Moore. The 60-year-old Moore was surprised by two men carrying shotguns, wearing camouflage fatigues and black ski masks, who bound him with duct tape. They proceeded to ransack his house, making off with a large collection of weapons, plus a number of gold and silver bars, and a safe deposit box key.

Interestingly, Moore (AKA: Bob Anderson) knew McVeigh, who once stayed at his house. Moore had met McVeigh at a gun show in Florida in 1995.

For his part, McVeigh had a solid alibi. He was in Kent, Ohio on November 5, at a gun show. Yet after the bombing, Fortier reportedly told the FBI that McVeigh called him after the robbery and said, "Nichols got Bob!" Some of the guns were later pawned by Fortier at the behest of McVeigh, according to the FBI, which contends that the proceeds were used to finance the bombing.

Interestingly, Nichols was seen in Sedalia, Missouri on February 10 and 11, the same weekend that gun dealer William Mueller was robbed. Mueller's Tilly, Arkansas home, 150 miles south of Sedalia, was burglarized of $40,000 worth of silver coins, gun parts, survival gear, and 30 cases of ammunition.

What makes this even more interesting is that Nichols had checked into the Motel Memory the evening of February 10, after a long drive from Kansas, telling owner Phillip Shaw he was there for the gun show. Yet Nichols had missed the first day of the two-day show.

The next morning, while Nichols was apparently at the show, Shaw's wife Betty opened his room and saw dozens of boxes of ammunition scattered across the floor. The presence of such a large quantity of ammunition puzzled local investigators, who knew there was too small a profit margin in legally-purchased ammo for gun show dealers to bother messing with it. Moreover, if Nichols had planned on selling the ammunition, why had he left so much of it in his room?

Tragically, Mueller, his wife, and their 8-year-old daughter, Sarah, were found murdered on June 28, 1996. Their bodies were by pulled from the Illinois Bayou after a fisherman discovered a portion of a leg. The family had been handcuffed, their heads covered with plastic bags wrapped with duct tape. They were found in 20 feet of water, tied to a heavy rock.

Unaccounted for was some $50,000 the Arkansas Gazette reported the Muellers were believed to have received only days before they disappeared.

While Timothy McVeigh had known Roger Moore, his friend Michael Brescia, and his friend and roommate Andy Strassmeir had met Bill Mueller at a Fort Smith, Arkansas gun show earlier that year. As reported in the McCurtain Gazette:

…Mueller then told [Gene] Wergis that he remembered the two because he believed they might be connected with his home's burglary — or even the ATF. Wergis also reported that Mueller showed him a spiral notebook where the exhibitor had gone so far — so great was his concern — as to write down the two men's names.^[373]

Both Brescia and Strassmeir, who also knew McVeigh, lived at Elohim City, the white separatist compound near Muldrow, Oklahoma. Two other part-time residents of Elohim City, 24 year-old Chevie Kehoe and his brother Cheyne, opened fired on police during a traffic stop in February of '97. The pair was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in Little Rock on murder, racketeering and conspiracy charges, stemming from the Mueller murder.

Guns stolen from the Muellers wound up at a Spokane, Washington motel. The manager told the FBI that he is 75 percent certain that McVeigh visited his motel in late '94 or early '95 when Chevie Kehoe was living there. He said that Kehoe showed up 45 minutes before the April 19 bombing with a request to watch CNN, and seemed elated when he learned of the tragedy.^[374]

Michael Brescia was later arrested for his alleged role in the robbery of a Madison, Wisconsin bank — part of the string of robberies committed by the Mid-West Bank Bandits. As previously mentioned, some of the robbers made their temporary homes at Elohim City.

After the bombing, the FBI questioned Padilla about the items found in Nichols' home and storage lockers. Among those items were large quantities of ammunition and a safe deposit box key belonging to Roger Moore. As of this writing it is not known whether the FBI traced the ammo to Mueller.

Also found in Nichols' home, according to ATF Agent Larry Tongate, were 33 firearms, five roles of 60-foot Primadet detonator cord, non-electric blasting caps, containers of ammonium nitrate, a fuel-meter, and four 55-gallon blue and white plastic drums.

Not exactly the everyday stuff of an ordinary guy from a small town in Kansas.

Similar items were found in James Nichols' farm, including blasting caps, safety fuses, ammonium nitrate, and diesel fuel. Nichols, who was taken into custody the same day as his brother, denied any wrongdoing, and authorities dropped all charges. As for his brother, he commented, "My gut feeling. I didn't do anything. He didn't do anything." When asked by a reporter, "How about Timothy McVeigh? he replied, "I want to see some facts."

Yet the facts against Terry seemed to be piling up.

On April 15, 1995, Barbara Whittenberg served breakfast to three men at the Sante Fe Trail Diner: Terry Nichols, Tim McVeigh, and a third man with dark features. She also recalled seeing a Ryder truck outside, and asked the men where they were headed. Suddenly, she said, it was "as if ice water was thrown on the conversation."^[375]

The men left before 7:00 a.m. Later that afternoon, as Whittenberg and her son were driving to nearby Junction City, they saw the truck parked at Geary State Fishing Lake — where authorities originally claimed the bomb was mixed. The truck was still there when they drove past around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. Whittenberg's son recalled seeing three men along with what he described as a Thunderbird with Arizona tags.

Later that day Nichols visited a Conoco station in Manhattan, Kansas, and a Coastal Mart in Junction City, and bought over 30 gallons of diesel fuel. Nichols' pick-up has a diesel motor, according to his brother, and Nichols' had been a regular diesel customer for over two months prior to the bombing, according to Shan Woods of Klepper Oil Co., purchasing between $20 to $30 worth of diesel fuel "two or three times a week." Receipts were again found in his home.^[376]

The next day, Nichols purchased an additional 21 gallons from the Junction City Conoco station.

Then, on the evening of April 17, 1995, a Ryder truck was seen parked behind Nichols Herrington home. A Ryder truck was seen that same week backed up to a storage shed that Nichols rented.

On the morning of the 18th, several witnesses again saw the Ryder truck parked at Geary Lake. Parked next to appeared to be Nichols' pick-up. When the FBI subsequently inspected the area, they allegedly recovered bits of ammonium nitrate and strands of detonator cord, and saw signs of diesel fuel.

That same day, or possibly the day before, a convoy pulled in for gas at the Easy Mart in Newkirk, 100 miles north of Oklahoma City. It was a Ryder truck accompanied by a blue pick-up with a camper top. Manager Jerri-Lynn Backhous recalled seeing three men. The passenger in the pick-up was dark skinned with black hair, average height, and had a "real muscular build," she said. He was wearing a t-shirt and sun-glasses, and "looked just like the John Doe 2 sketch."^[377]

Backhous also saw a reflection of the person in the Ryder truck. He was a short man with close cropped, dark hair and glasses, she said. Employee Dorinda J. "Wendy" Hermes waited on the third man — Terry Lynn Nichols — who came into the store and bought food for the others. Hermes particularly recalled Nichols' pick-up. "It caught me funny because it had street tires on it, but it was all muddy," she said.^[378]

But perhaps most interesting was the recollection of Nichols' son Josh, who accompanied McVeigh and his father on the ride back to Kansas that Sunday. McVeigh asserts that he called Nichols from Oklahoma City because his car had broken down, and asked Nichols to pick him up. On the way back, according to Josh, McVeigh made his infamously cryptic remark: "Something big is going to happen."

Nichols reportedly asked him, What, are you going to rob a bank?"

"Something big is going to happen," McVeigh stoically replied.

A curious statement. If McVeigh and Nichols had conspired to bomb the Murrah Building, wouldn't Nichols already know that "something big" was going to happen?

Or was the statement invented by Nichols to exculpate himself from the plot in the eyes of investigators? Given the fact that the statement was relayed to the FBI by Nichols' 12-year-old son, this seems unlikely.

And if Nichols was involved in the plot, there is evidence that in November of '94 he wanted out. Among the documents prosecutors handed over to the defense is testimony from Lori Fortier that McVeigh began to solicit help from her husband because Nichols was "expressing reluctance."

It should be noted however that the FBI and the "Justice" Department is infamous for framing people, and they brought enormous pressure on the Fortiers, threatening them with knowledge of a terrorist plot, weapons violations and other charges if they did not testify against Nichols and McVeigh. Federal prosecutors subsequently coached Lori Fortier heavily before McVeigh's trial, having her practice her testimony in two mock trials.

Yet if Nichols had no involvement in the plot, what was he doing with large quantities of ammonium nitrate, blasting caps, detonator cord, and a collection of 55-gallon drums? Why the purchases of diesel fuel? Were these items planted by the FBI?

If Nichols was involved in the bombing, why didn't he make any attempt to hide or dispose of these incriminating items before April 19, or even by the 22nd? Why would a man,who had allegedly just blown up a building, killing 169 people, plainly leave a receipt for the so-called bomb ingredient in his kitchen drawer?

In fact, Nichols didn't attempt to hide any of these items, before he casually walked into the local police station on April 22, after hearing his name on TV. Such do not seem like the actions of an intelligent, calculating, cold-blooded killer.

But, then there were the mysterious trips to the Philippines. Those trips, and Nichols' clandestine meetings with some mysterious players in Las Vegas, would begin to intrigue a handful of journalists and investigators, as the Oklahoma City bombing plot took them down an even darker and more insidious road.

Millar's Rent-A-Nazi

Authorities have postulated that McVeigh's "obsession with Waco," and Nichols' hatred of the Federal Government were the driving forces that led them to bomb the Federal Building. Their alleged association with militias and other paramilitary groups, authorities claimed, was the key influence that guided them along their sinister path to their final, vicious act of revenge.

These numerous pseudo-experts also theorized that McVeigh himself was inspired by the Turner Diaries, written by former physics professor William Pierce. In this fictionalized account of white race-warriors' overthrow of the Zionist Occupational Government (ZOG), the "heroes" demolish the FBI building in Washington, D.C. with a fertilizer bomb at precisely 9:00 a.m.

The idea for bombing a federal facility is hardly new. In the mid-1970s Oklahoma resident Harawese Moore was convicted of planting an incendiary device outside both the Federal Courthouse and the Alfred P. Murrah Building — a case, coincidentally, defended by Stephen Jones.

In 1983, members of the Covenant, Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA), a white supremacist group based in northern Arkansas, planned to truck-bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Building. In 1988, former CSA leader James Ellison turned states' evidence and testified that CSA member Richard Wayne Snell and others had participated in the plot. Snell was bitter toward the government, Ellison claimed, because the IRS and FBI had seized his property.

Other defendants included Richard Girnt Butler, chief of the Aryan Nations; Robert E. Miles, a former Ku Klux Klansman; and Louis Beam, Jr., former Grand Dragon of the Texas Ku Klux Klan, and Aryan Nations "Ambassador at Large" — who led a campaign of terror against Vietnamese-American fisherman.^[379]

Ellison, who fancied himself "King James," was surrounded at his CSA compound near the Missouri-Arkansas border on the prophetic date of April 19 (ten years to the day of the Oklahoma City bombing), leading to a four-day standoff against 200 heavily-armed agents. Ellison later testified at his sedition trial that at Snell's request, he had cased several buildings, including the Alfred P. Murrah Building.

"He took me to some of the buildings and asked me to go in the building and check the building out," Ellison said. According to his testimony, rocket launchers were to be "placed in a trailer or a van so that it could be driven up to a given spot, parked there, and a timed detonation device could be triggered so that the driver could walk away and leave the vehicle set in position and he would have time to clear the area before any of the rockets launched."^[380]

Ellison would later deny this. Yet on October 22, 1996, the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) played a clip of Ellison, where the former CSA leader admitted his involvement in the plot:

Ellison: ...Wayne Snell had been... had made a trip to Oklahoma City, and Wayne came back and told me about different buildings that he had seen, wanted to know if I would look at them with him sometime. And Steve talked to me and gave me a description of these buildings and asked me to design a rocket launcher that could be used to destroy these buildings from a distance... heavy, large buildings.

In the CBC piece, former CSA member Kerry Noble states: "I still look at things like this and realize how close we were, and, you know, that this could have been me having done this." The reformed Noble, now a critic of the militant extreme-Right, spoke openly about the plot with CBC's Trish Wood:

Noble: It was one of the targets that we had talked about at [the] CSA in '83. The day it happened, as soon as I heard it on the news, I said, the Right-wing's done it — they finally took that step.

Noble explained that the Murrah Building was a target because it was a low security complex that housed many different federal agencies. He said the plotters thought it would have more effect on the country "than if you did a building, say, in New York City or something."^[381]

Wood: Do you think — and I know this is a guess — that Snell or Ellison told [Reverend Robert] Millar about the early plans to blow up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City?

Noble: …I think that probably Millar knew that something major was going to happen. Now, whether he knew the exact details, chances are he probably did not, because he would not want to know specific details at first. But I think he knew something major was going to happen.

Ellison later settled at Elohim City at the behest of Millar, who claims to disavow the bombing. "If I knew something like that was taking place then or today," said the Christian Identity minister, "I'd do everything I could do to prevent it and, if necessary, call in government agents to help stop it."

While all 14 defendants in the original 1983 bombing plot were acquitted, Snell was executed on the ever-prophetic date of April 19, 1995, the very day that the Murrah Building was bombed. Snell was convicted of killing a black state trooper in 1984, and a pawn shop owner he thought was Jewish. While under arrest, Snell called himself a "prisoner of war," precisely what authorities claimed McVeigh said.

Before his death, Snell had time to watch scenes from the bombing on his jail-room TV. Millar, who was with the 64-year-old Snell during his final hours, said he was appalled at the destruction. Yet according to Arkansas prison official Alan Ables, "Snell chuckled and laughed as he watched television coverage of the Oklahoma City disaster."

Both Millar and Snell's wife contend that the convicted murderer was saddened by the bombing. Yet Noble thinks McVeigh was in some way inspired by Snell.

Wood: Did you ever think that it was a coincidence that Tim McVeigh — if, in fact, he did it — chose that building?

Noble: No, I don't think it's any coincidence. When you bring that into account with the declaration of war that we made, the pressure that the older leaders of the groups are putting on the younger followers to do something in a major way before they die — no, it's no coincidence.

Wood: How would McVeigh have known about the earlier plans for the Murrah Building?

Noble: It's very feasible and likely that he would have kept in communication with certain people and said... you know, then if somebody said, well, what would you recommend as a starting place — it's very likely he could have said, well, this is what we had picked out.

Interestingly, Ables told the Denver Post, "Snell repeatedly predicted that there would be a bombing or an explosion the day of his death."

Ables: A few days before the execution I began to hear things from the director, the wardens, just talk in the office, that strange things were going on, Snell was talking strangely, he was, you know, making statements that were a little scary… catastrophic events, things were going to happen. This date, April 19th, was going to be something that the governor would regret perhaps.

Snell's parting words before leaving this Earth were, "Look over your shoulder, Governor, justice is coming. I wouldn't trade places with you or any of your cronies. Hell has victory. I am at peace."

Wood: Are those the ravings of a man about to be executed or are they the comments of a man with a plan?

Noble: I think a man with a plan, I think a man who is taking the satisfaction that his death may mean something after all and that it may be the catalyst that puts somebody over the line to do what he himself didn't get the chance to do.^[382]

A similar bomb plot surfaced a year after the Oklahoma City bombing, when Richard Ray Lampley, 65, his wife Cecilia, and friend John Baird were convicted of a plot to bomb the ADL office in Houston, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in Montgomery, and various gay bars and abortion clinics. Lampley made his intentions known at one of Dennis Mahon's WAR meetings. A former Grand Imperial Dragon of the KKK, and number three man in WAR, the Tulsan was a frequent visitor to Lampley's place, and to Elohim City.

A self-proclaimed "Prophet of God," Lampley claims he was entrapped by Richard Schrum, an FBI informant. Schrum was sent by the Bureau to infiltrate the Oklahoma white separatist compound, but when he found nothing illegal there, he infiltrated Lampley's group instead.

According to defense attorneys, it was Schrum who ran the militia cell to which Lampley belonged, and threatened to leave when it appeared Lampley was wavering. "If anyone formed any kind of conspiracy, it was Richard Schrum," defense lawyer Mark Green said. Defense attorney Warren Gotcher backed up Green, stating "This conspiracy to build a bomb is totally on the orders of Richard Schrum." Schrum told Lampley that he had a brother in the Special Forces at Fort Bragg, NC, who would provide logistic support when the "New World Order" invasion came.^[383]

The bomb, a mixture of homemade C-4, was supposed to tested at Elohim City.^[384]

Whatever the reality of that case, it provides a unique insight into the characters and players of the white supremacist community of Southeastern Oklahoma — a community that drew to it like a magnet some of the key players of the Oklahoma City bombing conspiracy.

Led by the 71-year-old Millar, Elohim City (Hebrew for "City of God") is a 1,100-acre Christian Identity compound near Muldrow, Oklahoma. Founded in 1973 by the Canadian-born Mennonite, the community is home to approximately 90 residents, about half of whom are direct descendants of Millar.

Christian Identity adherents believe that white Anglo-Saxons, not Jews, are God's chosen people, being descendants of the 12 lost tribes of Israel, and that America, not Israel, is the Promised Land. This sanctified doctrine also holds that Jews are the spawn of Satan, and non-whites are a "pre-Adamic," sub-species.

Only whites are the "true sovereign citizens" of the Republic, and all others are "Fourteenth Amendment citizens" — the creation of an illegitimate "ZOG." Believers of this odd mix of theology not only believe that the end times are near, but that a great messiah will arise to lead these "holy warriors" in a terrible final battle against the evil ZOG.

Those who monitor Right-wing extremist groups say Millar is probably the most influential Christian Identity leader in the Great Plains.^[385] As Millar explained it:

"We are opposed to governmental misuse of tax money.… We are opposed to some of the actions of government. We're not anti-government... Our people are all self-employed, and we all pay taxes.… "We are racist," Millar said, "but we aren't anti-Semitic. I think it's better for races and cultures... to have relationships within their own ethnic group. That doesn't mean isolationism, but it means separatism."^[386]

Yet the group does maintain connections to white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations, including WAR, the somewhat defunct CSA, and the violent but largely disbanded Order. The Christian Identity adherents also formed alliances with Richard Butler, Christian Identity "minister," and head of the Aryan Nations in Hayden Lake, Idaho. The Hayden Lake compound served as a nexus for white supremacist groups from all over the country, including the KKK, Posse Comitatus, William Pierce's National Alliance, and Robert Mathews' Order. It was Mathews' group, inspired by Pierce's Turner Diaries, that went on to commit a string of bank robberies, counterfeiting, bombings, and murder throughout the Mid- and Northwest in the 1980s.^[387]

Amassing between $2 and $4 million from robberies and heists of armored cars, the group distributed the proceeds amongst the white supremacist movement. They also purchased land in northern Idaho for paramilitary training, but moved to northern Arkansas, linking up with the CSA when they found the harsh climate unsuitable for their purposes.

The Order's exploits came to an end in November of '84, when Mathews died in a shoot-out with police and federal agents on Whidby Island off the coast of Washington. It's members who managed to escape fled across the country, integrating themselves into different white supremacist groups, or went underground altogether.

Richard Lee Guthrie, Jr., the son of a CIA employee, who was discharged from the Navy for painting a swastika on the side of a ship and threatening superiors, his childhood friend Peter K. Langan, and Shawn Kenny, went on to form the nucleus of a group known as the Midwest Bank Bandits. The group stole more than $250,000 from 22 banks between January of '94 and December of '95 in a spree that led them across Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. The four-member group would often wear FBI jackets agents to taunt the Bureau, and create diversions to foil police, including leaving behind inert pipe-bombs to slow pursuit. The bandits even had a macabre sense of humor, wearing a Santa Claus suit during a hold-up around Christmas, and an Easter basket with a gold painted pipe-bomb left inside a bank in Des Moines.

"Wild Bill" Guthrie also admitted to a West Virginia sheriff that he had helped Butler's Aryan Nations raise another quarter million dollars through fraud. Both Guthrie and Langan were regular visitors to the Hayden Lake compound.

The seeds for the mens' dalliance with the paramilitary extreme-Right was sown in 1991, when Shawn Kenny, a friend of Langan and Guthrie, began discussing their plans to further the "cause."

Interestingly, the Secret Service recruited Langan as an informant in August of 1993 to keep an eye on his friend Guthrie, who had made threats against the lives of Presidents Clinton and Bush. Langan was released from his Georgia jail cell (where he was serving time for robbing a Pizza Hut with Guthrie) and set up in a house in Ohio, where he was to assist the Secret Service in locating his old friend. The deal soon went sour.

Secret Service Agent Dick Rathnell summed up the fiasco this way: "Our main interest was to find if there was an interest to harm the President or overthrow the government.... We didn't know they were these bank robbers."^[388]

Langan went south on the Secret Service six weeks later, and soon located his old friend Guthrie. The two set themselves up in a safehouse in Pittsburg, Kansas, from which they were alleged to have launched their notorious crime spree.

In November of '94, Mark Thomas, the local Aryan Nations representative, united the two with others of their kind. Thomas' farm, located rather appropriately next to a toxic waste dump, has been the site of skin-head and neo-Nazi rallies such as White Pride Day and the annual Hitler Youth Festival, where participants enjoyed such wholesome activities as pagan rituals and cross burnings.

Thomas introduced the pair to Pennsylvania native Scott Stedeford, a rock musician and artist, and Kevin McCarthy, a bassist in a white-power band named "Day of the Sword." Thomas was instrumental in helping the men form an alliance which they would call the Aryan Republican Army (ARA).

Taking the moniker of "Commander Pedro," Langan became the group's leader. According to testimony provided by Kenny at Stedeford's trial, Langan boasted that the gang was modeled after The Order.

"Learn from Bob [Mathews]," Langan is heard saying on a home-made recruitment video. "Learn from his mistakes. Study your enemy. Study his methods."^[389]

The Pennsylvania Posse Comitatus leader would also introduce Stedeford and McCarthy to Michael Brescia, a Philadelphia native and rock musician who would go on to form a speed metal band with McCarthy and Stedeford, called "Cyanide." The rock 'n roll bank robbers decided to recruit the 24-year-old La Salle University student after planning the heist of a large bank in Madison, Wisconsin, which the trio robbed on August 30, 1995.

The three men came to know "Grandpa Millar" at Elohim City courtesy of Thomas, and Brescia was soon engaged to Millar's granddaughter, Ester. Brescia wound up living at the reclusive compound for two years. It was there that he would meet his new roommate, Andreas Karl Strassmeir, the mysterious German who settled there in 1991. It was also at Elohim City that Brescia would meet Timothy McVeigh. As ATF informant Carol Elizabeth Howe recalled:

"Sometime before Christmas [of 1994] a lot of guys showed up at EC (Elohim City). One that I recall was Tim [McVeigh], who I only knew as Tim Tuttle. He was there with a guy who used the name Fontaine, a person I now recognize as Mike Fortier."

Referring to McVeigh, she said, "I never even spoke to him. He was considered a 'good soldier' by the members of the ARA, but not a leader; he was just someone you sent out on jobs, because he was reliable."^[390]

Were McVeigh and Nichols involved in bank robberies? Had the robberies financed the bombing? It was a question that has disturbed Nichols' ex-wife Lana Padilla, who discovered masks, nylon stockings, and wigs in her former spouse's storage locker. Nichols was known as a vehement critic of the banking system, had been on the losing end of a large credit card lawsuit, and had declared the Federal Reserve corrupt.

McVeigh himself sent his sister Jennifer three $100 bills, telling her they were the proceeds from a bank robbery. While there was no proof that the pair had actually participated, authorities would ponder the significance of the associations. As the Gazette writes:

A reliable source familiar with the investigation confirmed that admitted co-conspirator Michael Fortier told the FBI that ex-army buddy Tim McVeigh said in February 1995 that he (McVeigh) was going to Colorado to join "The Order."^[391]

Interestingly, what is not known is just where McVeigh was on the days immediately before and immediately after 11 of the robberies.

What is known is that Brescia, Strassmeir, and McVeigh became friends, attending gun shows, traveling the white supremacist circuit, and crashing high-school parties in Kansas, not far from Terry Nichols' house. Neighbors recalled seeing men who fit the general description of McVeigh and John Doe 2 at Nichols' Herrington home.

For his part, Strassmeir claims he'd "never been in Kansas," then admitted, "…well, once, driving through."^[392]

Catina Lawson's roommate, Lindsay Johnson, dated Brescia, and Lawson was close friends with McVeigh. Both she and Lawson recalled seeing Strassmeir, Brescia, McVeigh and Fortier at the Kansas parties around the Summer of '92. The young women allegedly referred to the handsome young Brescia as "Mike Breezy."

It is Brescia, some investigators claim, who is the mysterious John Doe 2 originally sought by the FBI. Bombing victim Glenn Wilburn, along with investigator J.D. Cash, learned of Brescia's relationship to Strassmeir and McVeigh after talking to people at Elohim City and others in the white supremacist underground. The family filed a $30 million lawsuit against McVeigh, which includes Strassmeir, and named Brescia as John Doe 2.

Robert Millar insists that Brescia, who is engaged to Millar's granddaughter, is not John Doe 2, but simply a "cleancut, college type boy."^[393]

Yet several witnesses in Kansas claimed that Brescia closely matches the FBI's wanted sketch. Like John Doe 2, Brescia has a tattoo on his left arm. Curiously though, Brescia's tattoo is circular — a cross inside a wheel — the emblem of the Aryan Nations. The tattoo seen by Mike Moroz and other witnesses on John Doe 2 more closely resembled a dragon, an anchor, or a snake. But then again, according to numerous witnesses, there is more than one John Doe 2.

While Brescia's connection to Elohim City centered around his relationship with Ester, it was Strassmeir who was his roommate. A German national, the 38-year-old Strassmeir is the son of Günter Strassmeir, former Parliamentary Secretary of State to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Strassmeir's uncle is in the German parliament, and his brother Alexander sits on the Berlin City Council. Like Langan, Strassmeir's father also reportedly has connections to the CIA.

Andreas served as a lieutenant in the German Panzer Grenadiers (the equivalent of our Special Forces), had formal military intelligence training, and did a stint as a liaison officer with the Welsh Guards. He told the London Sunday Telegraph that part of his work was to detect infiltration by Warsaw Pact agents, and then feed them disinformation. "If we caught a guy, we'd offer him amnesty. We'd turn him and use him to feed false information back to the Warsaw Pact."^[394] While Strassmeir would not admit it, it is reported that he is an agent for the German national anti-terrorist police, the GSG-9.^[395]

"Andy the German," as he became known, arrived in the U.S. in May of 1991, without being documented by the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), and lived on a credit card provided by sources unknown. He soon became Elohim City's Director of Security.^[396]

According to Strassmeir, his path crossed McVeigh's at a Tulsa gun show in April of '93. Strassmeir stopped by McVeigh's table and bought a few military souvenirs and discussed events at Waco. He then gave McVeigh his card bearing the inscription "Elohim City." In an interview in Soldier of Fortune, Strassmeir professed never to of heard of McVeigh, though he later recanted his story for the Telegraph.. "I met the guy once at a gun show," he said. "We spoke for five minutes, that's all."^[397]

It would seem the relationship goes deeper than that however. Strassmeir reportedly met McVeigh again at the first anniversary of the Waco massacre in April of '94. And according to journalist William Jasper, sources close to the investigation revealed that McVeigh visited Elohim City on at least 20 occasions. Traffic records show McVeigh was stopped for speeding on October 12, 1993, two miles north of Cederville, Arkansas, less than 10 miles from Elohim City, on a remote road leading to the compound. ATF informant Carol Howe also recalled seeing McVeigh and Fortier at Elohim City during the winter of '94.

Yet possibly the most revealing connection surfaced in the form of two phone calls, one placed by McVeigh from the Imperial Motel in Kingman, Arizona to Strassmeir on April 5, just two weeks before the bombing. It was just minutes after McVeigh had allegedly called Junction City to reserve the Ryder truck. According to Millar's daughter-in-law Joan, who answered the phone, the caller asked to speak to "Andy." Andy wasn't in. McVeigh left a message saying, "Tell Andy I'll be coming through."

Robert Millar, Elohim City's "spiritual leader," claimed ignorance of McVeigh or the phone call.^[398] He later recanted his story.

Then one day before the bombing, McVeigh called Strassmeir's U.S. attorney, Kirk Lyons, looking for Andy. Not finding him there, he engaged Lyon's assistant, Dave Holloway, in a 15-minute conversation about Waco, Lyons claims, and the need to "send a message to the government." It seemed McVeigh also needed to send a message to Strassmeir.

For his part Strassmeir claims McVeigh never visited Elohim City. "I don't know why McVeigh was trying to contact me," he said.

Catina Lawson, who was close friends with McVeigh for two years, remembers seeing Strassmeir at the Junction City parties. "He was just someone you'd see every once in a while," said Lawson, who, along with friends, would meet and party with the soldiers from nearby Fort Riley. "He was tall, skinny and pale, with crooked teeth and sunken eyes surrounded by dark circles. And he had this accent.…"^[399]

Larry Wild and his wife Kathy also recall seeing Strassmeir on one of their fishing trips to Cameron Springs Lake, near Fort Riley. The Wilds remember seeing Strassmeir with two other men with an old Ryder truck one week before the bombing. Just who those two other men were they couldn't say. Wild did recall speaking with Strassmeir though. "I said, 'Your dialect is really different. Are you a soldier?' He said, 'No.' I said, 'Do you work for the government?' He just kind of laughed."

Yet still more witnesses recall seeing the two men together. At least five dancers recall seeing McVeigh, Nichols, Brescia, and Strassmeir at Lady Godiva's, a strip joint in Tulsa, which the men visited on April 8, 1995. In an interview with CBC's Trish Wood, the dancers, who wish to remain anonymous, were "positive" of Strassmeir and McVeigh's presence just eleven days before the bombing:

Wood: You saw this man in here?

Unidentified: Yes.

Wood: And how do you remember? What makes you remember seeing him in here that night?

Unidentified: From one of the girls. I just heard her say something about a couple of guys, there were a couple of weird guys, she wanted somebody to go sit with them.

As discussed earlier, McVeigh bragged to one of the girls that "something big" was going to happen. "On April 19, 1995, you'll remember me for the rest of your life," McVeigh said.^[400]

Also present that night was an old, faded Ryder truck, seen by the bouncer. The truck appeared to be privately-owned, adding further proof that at least two trucks were used in the bombing. It was this truck which was seen by witnesses at Geary State Park, several days before authorities allege that McVeigh rented his. J.D. Cash speculates that McVeigh flew to Fort Smith from his motel room in Kingman on April 7 to pick up the truck and meet his comrades, then the men stopped by Tulsa on their way back to Kansas.

If they stopped by Tulsa, maybe it was to check out the Indian Territory Gun Show. It also might have been to meet Dennis Mahon. The WAR official, National Socialist Alliance (NSA) leader, and former KKK Imperial Grand Dragon traveled frequently to the reclusive compound where he kept a trailer, "to visit and fellowship and do some target shooting and military maneuvers," he said. Mahon was close friends with Brescia and Strassmeir, both of whom he "loved like brothers."^[401]

In what may seem like an even more bizarre twist, Mahon claims he was funded by the Iraqis during the Gulf War. Like Order leader Robert Mathews, who was reportedly offered funding by the Syrians, Mahon received $100 a month, for a total of $4,800, from the Iraqis to stir up opposition to the Bush/UN-imposed sanctions. Mahon, operator of the Dial-a-Racist hot line, also produced several videotapes which he distributed to public access stations, expressing his dissenting view on the U.S. policy.^[402]

Mahon started receiving Iraqi funds shortly after he began holding anti-war rallies, he said. "…it's coming from the same zip code where the Iraqi Embassy is, but they don't say it's from the Iraqi Embassy."^[403]

Jeff Steinberg, an investigator for the LaRouche Foundation, says such a scenario is not at all unusual. "This kind of stuff happened all the time," says Steinberg. "In the '70s, they had people who's job it was to show up at every sort of Left-wing rally."

Yet why would the Iraqis give money to an avowed white supremacist like Mahon? "Hatred of the Jews," says Stienberg. "Some low-level person at the embassy gives it out to these guys, and you'd be surprised at who they give it to — they're not that bright."^[404]

In McVeigh's Petition for Writ of Mandamus, filed one week before McVeigh's trial, Stephen Jones made note of the fact that three members of the American Agricultural Movement also met with Iraqi officials. Their purpose was to work with the Iraqis to negotiate a peaceful withdraw from Kuwait. "We wanted to get a dialogue going and stop a shooting war," said one member. "As Americans, that's what we tried to do."^[405]

Yet it seemed the meeting between the farmers and the Iraqi ambassador wasn't the only meeting that took place. Jones stated that Terry Nichols, who he refers to only as "Suspect I," made calls to two Kansas-based Posse Comitatus members — David Oliphant and Buddy Snead. Like Nichols, Snead is married to a Filipino woman. It is not known whether he met her through the same mail-order bride service as Nichols.^[406]

A CIA source contacted by Jones indicated that two members of the Posse Comitatus (it is not known who) visited with an Iraqi diplomat in New York City around the same general time. While the author was unable to locate these two individuals to confirm the story, it is possible they met with the diplomat to express their horror over Bush's "Desert Massacre."

It is also possible that the Iraqis viewed the meeting as an opportunity to strengthen their ties to the white supremacist movement. As will be seen, collaboration between Arab states, Mid-East terrorists, and neo-Nazis is a long and well-documented one.

Unfortunately for Dennis Mahon, the Iraqis severed their ties with him after the bombing. "…they cut me off, a month after the bombing — bastards!"^[407]

It is also likely that Mahon, who traveled to Germany to recruit young skinheads for the KKK, may have met up with Michael Kühnen. A prominent neo-Nazi, Kühnen formed the Anti-Zionist League, which preached hatred of Jews, and sought to form a common bond between Nazis and their Arab brethren. Kühnen also negotiated with the Iraqis, providing them with 200 German, American and British skinheads to fight alongside Iraqi troops. There is reportedly a videotape of these storm troopers in S.S. uniforms being greeted by Iraqi Information Minister Abdel Lateef Jassem.^[408]

Kühnen's successor, a name named Hubner, has connections to Kirk Lyons, Andreas Strassmeir's North Carolina-based attorney. Lyons also spoke with Hubner at meetings of the group "Deutsche Alternative." Like Mahon, Lyons traveled the German white supremacist circuit. Strassmeir and Mahon were close friends, until Mahon and his brother Dennis reportedly called Germany with orders to kill Strassmeir.

Another friend of Mahon's is Gary Lauck of Lincoln, Nebraska. The leader of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Worker's Party, Lauck wrote a 20-page manifesto entitled, "Strategy, Propaganda and Organization," about integrating worldwide extremist groups into a tight network, and "military education with terrorist aims." Lauck has reportedly had frequent contact with Arab terrorist groups according to McVeigh's defense counsel.

Finally, there is the Libyan government, widely reported to have funded both the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and U.S. citizens, including a Chicago street gang called the El Rukns — convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts throughout the U.S.

"Upon hearing that Louis Farrakhan had received $5 million from the Libyan government, the leader of the El Rukns actively sought sponsorship from Libya in exchange to an in-kind amount of money. Members of the El Rukns actually traveled to Libya to meet with military official of the Libyan government."^[409]

Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI, or "Black Muslims"), carries forth a unique historical precedent. His predecessor, Elijah Muhammad, invited American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell to address an NOI rally on June 25, 1961 in Washington, D.C. There is a photo of Rockwell's Nazis in full regalia (including Swastika arm bands) seated in the front row, with the Black Muslims seated directly behind them.^[410]

Rockwell appeared at an NOI rally in Chicago one year later, where he announced, "Elijah Muhammad is to the so-called Negro what Adolph Hitler was to the German people.…"

In September of 1985, the NOI invited Tom Metzger, former Grand Dragon of the KKK and current leader of WAR to its forum in Ingelwood, California, and accepted a small financial contribution from the notorious white supremacist. Metzger declared that his alliance with the NOI was a "logical one: They want their territory and that's exactly what we want for them and for ourselves. They speak against the Jews and the oppressors in Washington."^[411]

It therefore comes as no surprise that Libya funded the NOI to the tune of $5 million dollars. The motive behind Arab funding of Western racist and dissident groups was — and is — to forment revolution and destabilize the "Great Satan." Just as Libyan President Muammar al-Qaddafi serves as the inspiration behind many militant Black Muslims, so the IRA served as the spiritual inspiration behind the Aryan Republican Army, the group founded by Richard Guthrie and Peter Langan, which included Michael Brescia.

As Stephen Jones eloquently states, "These people are targeted because their ideological compass is preset against the Federal Government.… Although the white supremacist community are diametrically opposed to that of Black Muslims, it is a well known fact that both share a common hatred for the Federal Government."

When the ARA was eventually disbanded, the FBI discovered an IRA terrorist manual called the "Green Book," literature on Ireland, Gaelic language tapes, Semtex explosives, a shoulder-fired rocket launcher, and 11 pipe bombs.^[412] Semtex is normally used by Mid-East terrorists, usually being supplied by Russia, China and North Korea.

It seems the connection goes deeper. Dennis Mahon claims he actually provided advice to the IRA, encouraging them to murder "top British officers and police officials" but avoid killing civilians. That statement ties-in to others Mahon has made, including the idea of blowing up the Oklahoma Federal Building at night, when no one was around, and other methods which "are legitimate to save your nation."

It seems the IRA may have returned the favor. According to Carol Howe, the outlawed Irish resistance group supplied the detonator used in the Oklahoma City bombing. The author is not quite sure why the bombers would need to go to the IRA for a detonator, or exactly how such a connection would be arranged, but it seems rather dubious. Sinn Fein (the political arm of the IRA) President Gerry Adams called the claim "preposterous rubbish."^[413]

It may seem even more preposterous in light of the fact that Adams had won the political favoritism of President Clinton, having been the guest of honor at a recent White House reception.

Yet Howe alleged that Andreas Strassmeir was the key link between the ARA and the IRA. Interestingly, the Dublin Sunday Times reported on July 13, 1997 that Strassmeir has indeed associated with Sinn Fein:

Strassmeir moved to Dublin last February and is living in an apartment in the city owned by George Maybury, general secretary of the association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors. He has been working on construction sites and has attended Sinn Fein meetings and social events.^[414]

Furthermore, federal informant Cary Gagan, who met with Jones after the bombing, told the author he met with an IRA bomb expert while in Mexico City, who instructed him on the use of timers. Gagan claims to have been deeply immersed in the Middle Eastern cell involved in the bombing. (See Chapter 5)

When FOX News reporter Rita Cosby asked Robert Millar if there was any Middle Eastern connection to Elohim City, he answered, "No, not that I can even dream of." Strassmeir likewise denied any Middle Eastern connection to the bombing in an interview with the author.^[415] As of this writing, former ABC 20/20 investigator Roger Charles was checking a lead that Middle Eastern individuals were indeed trained at Elohim City. It has not yet been confirmed.

Just what Andreas Strassmeir was doing in the U.S. is not altogether clear. In a five-part interview in the Telegraph, Strassmeir said that he came to the U.S. in 1989 to work on a "special assignment" for the Justice Department. "I discussed the job when I was in Washington. I was hoping to work for the operations section of the DEA," he explained. "It never worked out."

The former German intelligence officer was recommended for these positions by Vincent Petruskie, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. Strassmeir told attorney Mike Johnston, who flew to Berlin to interview him, that Petruskie is "a former CIA guy who my father had known since he (Petruskie) was stationed in Berlin during the Cold War."

In an interview with New American editor William Jasper, Petruski denied any CIA connections:

As for the CIA connection, "That's totally wrong," insisted Petruskie. "I'm a retired Air Force officer, that's all." According to Petruskie, he was a special agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigation (OSI), and retired as a colonel after serving from 1954 to 1975. Was he a friend of Andreas' father? "I've never met his father; we've only spoken over the phone."^[416]

How had Petruskie come to know the younger Strassmeir? Andreas arrived in the late 1980s with some other German lads for the reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg. The German visitors had authentic period uniforms, rifles, bayonets, etc. and an amazingly detailed knowledge of the battle. But they apparently had not done their homework concerning economic realities of contemporary America and so were short of cash for living accommodations and had no credit cards with which to rent a vehicle. That is when a mutual friend put them in touch with Petruskie, who put them up for a while at his home.

Strassmeir was "a mixed-up kid, a very immature 34-year-old when he came over here," recalled Petruskie. "Andy wanted to work for the U.S. government — DEA, Justice — undercover. [He] thought his background with military and German government would help. I explained he'd need a green card, education, and set him down with some people in Washington who explained that it wasn't that simple. I think he went down to South Carolina and then to Texas to go to school."^[417]

In an interview with the Oklahoma Gazette, Petruski once again attempted to distance himself from Strassmeir. "This kid is what we would call a putz," he said.

An interesting description for a former intelligence officer and lieutenant in the elite Panzer Grenadiers.^[418]

Petruski also claims that Strassmeir's job with the DEA "fell through." Is one seriously supposed to accept the premise that a man with Strassmeir's background, influence, and connections came to the U.S. on the off-chance of finding a job with the DEA? That he traveled all this way to run around playing toy soldier for a couple days? And that Petruski just "happened" to meet him at a battle reenactment at Gettysburg?

More likely, Gettysburg was a necessary cover-story to infiltrate Strassmeir into the country. Appearing to be a military enthusiast makes it easier to infiltrate the extreme-Right. And Petruski's tale about his DEA job falling through is a "limited hang-out," just enough information revealed to satisfy nosy journalists, with enough disinformation mixed in to steer them away from "unapproved" areas. And while Petruski said that Strassmeir never got a job with the DEA, he never said he didn't get a job with the ATF, FBI, or CIA.^[419]

With his cover-story firmly in place, Strassmeir then "drifted" into the far-Right circles of the lunatic fringe, stopping long enough to pick an ordinary job as a computer salesman to further enhance his image as an innocent drifter.

"Andy the German" was now ready to infiltrate the neo-Nazi cliques of the far-Right. With his German background and accent, it was easy to convince white supremacists of his legitimacy. In 1991 he settled in Elohim City, where he established himself as Chief of Security and weapons training.

According to a report from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI), Strassmeir trained platoon-sized groups consisting of 30 to 40 individuals from throughout the U.S. every three months at the reclusive compound. According to a law enforcement source interviewed by the McCurtain Gazette, they consisted primarily of members from the Aryan Nations, and included Timothy McVeigh.^[420] As the Gazette reported:

"Strassmeir went out and replaced all our deer rifles with assault weapons," said [resident Zara] Patterson. "Next, he wanted us to start doing illegal stuff… a lot of illegal stuff. I kept telling Andy that we were defensive here, and we didn't want any problems from the law. During the mid-'80s, we had a standoff with the feds. I told him to keep us out of trouble."^[421]

Was Strassmeir attempting to infiltrate Elohim City? "If the agent penetrates the group," Strassmeir said in an interview with the author, "the first thing they do is try to sell them weapons." When asked if that wasn't exactly what he did, he replied, "I just advised them about weapons, as an experienced soldier. That's what I did for years and years. I was an infantry man — I just gave advice. But, I always obeyed the law." He then admitted that he "didn't know the law. I'd have to consult my lawyer."

According to information obtained by the Telegraph, Strassmeir infiltrated the Texas Light Infantry militia between 1988 and 1989, and set up some illegal gun purchases. They soon suspected that Strassmeir was a ATF informant. When some members followed him to a federal building one night, they observed him entering it using the building's combination key-pad.^[422]

ATF agent Angela Finley-Graham, the agent who supervised ATF informant Carol Howe, had aerial surveillance photos of Strassmeir with an assault weapon, and photos of concrete bunkers at Elohim City. In fact, in 1992, some 960 yards of concrete were transported to the compound, presumably for bunkers and weapons storage facilities.^[423]

Law enforcement officials also received reports that the compound was believed to be generating income through the sale of illegal drugs. A source familiar with the community told me that Bruce Millar, Robert Millar's son, was supposedly "strung out" on Methamphetimines. Speed is a highly popular drug among the neo-Nazi crowd, and was in fact invented by the Nazis during WWII to bolster the fighting ability of their front-line troops.

Several weeks before the bombing, in mid-February, the Tulsa office of the ATF passed on information to the Oklahoma Highway Patrolman Ken Stafford, who put out a BOLO (Be On The Lookout For) on Strassmeir:

ANDREAS STRASSMEIR, W/M, 5/17/59, heavy German accent. Black Hair/ Blue Eyes. 1" scar on chin, wears cammo fatigues. Possible Tennessee driver's license. Came to USA in 5/91, passport was good until 8/91. He never left the country. INS says he does not have an extension of his VISA. Possibly in blue Chevy, late model, tag BXH 346 (not on file), usually has someone driving him. Carries a .45 auto pistol at all times. He is an illegal alien, ATF wants to be notified if he is stopped and has the gun on him. They will file the charges. Contact: Agent Angela Finley, ATF. Office: 918-581-7731 (or) Pager: 918-672-2755.

What's odd is that the BOLO was for an INS violation, not exactly the jurisdiction of the ATF. Moreover, according to a Tulsa police intelligence source, the INS was told not to make any effort to focus on visa violations due to manpower shortages.

The McCurtain Gazette, which uncovered the BOLO, thinks it was put out by the ATF to provide cover for Strassmeir — an aid for his extraction from Elohim City. The OHP subsequently typed up the BOLO, which was eventually "leaked" to various sources, including the residents of the rural community. According to Glenn Wilburn, the BOLO was circulated with the stipulation that Strassmeir not be arrested.^[424]

Curiously, when Finley-Graham attempted to get a warrant for Strassmeir's arrest, she was stonewalled by the INS. A Tulsa police intelligence source told me that Finley "was out to get the whole place." This fact was confirmed by information obtained by McVeigh's defense counsel during discovery.^[425]

This is also interesting in light of the fact that the INS and ATF had originally planned a joint raid on the compound — a plan which suddenly came to a halt in late February of '95. As one INS memo stated:

Investigation pending — no arrest or warrant as of yet — Northeastern Oklahoma — request participation. Raid — next month.^[426]

It seems the ATF and INS weren't the only ones interested in Elohim City. As a report of Finley-Graham's dated February 28 states:

On 22 February 1995, this agent met with OHP Trooper Ken Stafford to exchange certain information regarding this investigation. Trooper Stafford indicated that the FBI also had an ongoing investigation regarding Elohim City. On this same date, RAC David Roberts met with the United States Attorney for the Northern Judicial District of Oklahoma, Steve Lewis, to discuss this investigation.

On February 23, 1995 RAC David Roberts was contacted by FBI supervisor, Marty Webber, who stated that FBI Special Agent in Charge, Bob Ricks, would be available during the week of February 27 through March 03, 1995 to meet with ATF Special Agent in Charge, Lester Martz. RAC Roberts then contacted Dallas Division to request SAC Martz meet with SAC Ricks to discuss the investigation of Elohim City.^[427]

As an interesting historical precedent, [former] FBI agent James Rodgers had developed a massive FBI raid on Elohim City in 1988, but it was called off for reasons that have never been made clear.

One month before the bombing Howe got "fed up" with Elohim City and the ATF's attitude towards the investigation. "Angie hadn't made any arrests either," Howe told the Gazette, "and that was frustrating, so I quit going out there... until after the building got blown up!"^[428][429]

Three days after the bombing, the ATF's Washington headquarters pulled the Tulsa office off the case, and the FBI requested them to turn over all their files on Elohim City.

The question is, just who was Strassmeir reporting to? The CIA? The Tulsa ATF office, which has jurisdiction over Elohim City, may not have been informed if Strassmeir were reporting to a higher authority, a different agency, or was a confidential informant (CI) on a national level.

Strassmeir's cover-story that his Justice Department job "never worked out" also smacks of McVeigh's story that his try-out for the Special Forces didn't work out due to a "blister." Perhaps Strassmeir — a seven-year German Army veteran — failed his indoctrination due to a "nose-bleed."

In spite of his vehement denials, Strassmeir practically admitted to the Telegraph that he was an undercover agent. "The Right-wing in the U.S. is incredibly easy to penetrate if you know how to talk to them," he told the Telegraph. "Of course it's easier for a foreigner with an accent; nobody would ever suspect a German of working for the Federal Government."

This certainly appears to be no ordinary slip of the tongue. How would Strassmeir know the extreme-Right is "incredibly easy to penetrate" unless he had penetrated them? His statement that 'nobody would ever suspect a German' is practically an admission that he was doing so.

On February 28, 1992 Strassmeir was arrested and his car impounded by the OHP for driving without a license. When the police opened his briefcase, they found a number of documents, including some in German. There were statements from foreign bank accounts, false identity papers, and a copy of The Terrorist Handbook.

According to the tow-truck driver, Kenny Pence, Strassmeir soon brought heavy pressure to bear. "Boy, we caught hell over that one," he said. "The phone calls came in from the State Department, the Governor's office, and someone called and said he had diplomatic immunity.…"^[430]

According to Strassmeir, the entirety of the story amounts to a pair of cops who were out to harass him and his friend Peter Ward (recall that Howe identified Ward as John Doe #1). Interestingly, federal prosecutors filed a motion requesting that Judge Matsch block efforts by McVeigh's defense team who was seeking government files on Strassmeir's activities. It was eventually revealed to Jones through discovery that Strassmeir held a tourist Visa with the designation "A O". Neither Jones nor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who reported extensively on Strassmeir, could learn what the designation meant. The INS denied any knowledge of its meaning. Curiously, the entries, which appeared on all of Strassmeir's INS files, suddenly vanished in March of 1996. Somebody had earased them.^[431]

All told, these are strange circumstances for a former German intelligence officer — the politically well-connected son to a top aide in Chancellor Helmut Kohl's government. It seems unlikely that this ordinary "computer salesman" and "neo-Nazi" with diplomatic immunity, backed up by the State Department and the Justice Department, brought federal pressure to bear in order to have a minor traffic violation cleared.

More likely, Strassmeir was in danger of having his cover blown by unsuspecting law enforcement agents. The situation had to be corrected, and quickly.

After the bombing, with the increasing attention of investigators, and his cover almost blown, Strassmeir fled to Germany, taking a circuitous route through Mexico and Paris — a route commonly used by spies. Strassmeir's attorney, Kirk Lyons, detailed his client's escape, stating that it was aided by Germany's vaunted counter-terrorism unit, GSG-9, the equivalent of our Delta Force. Curious that GSG-9 would assist in Strassmeir's retreat. Were they helping one of their own?^[432]

To help maintain his cover, the Justice Department questioned Strassmeir in North Carolina at his attorneys office, then called him in Berlin to ask about his alleged ties to McVeigh. "The FBI asked where I was on the day of the bombing," he told the Telegraph.. "They wanted to help debunk the rumors spread about me."^[433]

Why the FBI would be in the business of debunking rumors, unless it is about them, is unclear. In this case, since any ties between Strassmeir and the Justice Department would lead directly back to the them, it seems that is exactly what they are trying to do.^[434]*

If Strassmeir had any ties to McVeigh, or to McVeigh's companions, or to those who had planned the 1983 bombing of the Murrah Building, the Justice Department should have served him with a grand jury subpoena or a warrant. Yet all the FBI did was call Strassmeir on the phone to "debunk the rumors" spread about him.

As one law enforcement officer told the McCurtain Gazette, "We found the axle from the truck that led to Junction City and McVeigh. Our Highway Patrolman arrested McVeigh. And that arrest led to Terry Nichols and Mike Fortier… Since then, nothing in this investigation has accomplished anything. But we're told by the Bureau that Strassmeir and his buddies are not important. Bull-shit!"^[435]

The Gazette also uncovered an intelligence bulletin issued by the Diplomatic Security Division, Counter Terrorism Unit, of the Department of State on March 18, 1996 concerning Strassmeir's alleged criminal activities in the U.S.

The cable states that Strassmeir overstayed his visa in 1991 and was known to have been the militia training officer for a white separatist group called WAR.

Quoting the cable, "He (Strassmeir) has been the subject of several investigations for purchasing weapons, and making the weapons fire on full automatic. Strassmeir should not be allowed to return to the U.S."

Yet this cable makes it appear as though the FBI didn't know anything about Strassmeir — who was apparently under the protection of the State Department. Was this another cover ploy to protect their informant, or was Strassmeir working for the CIA, who wasn't communicating with the FBI and ATF?

Interestingly, the FBI would claim they weren't aware of Carol Howe's status as an informant either. During her July, 1997 trial (the result of trumped up charges by so-called the Justice Department), FBI agent Pete Rickel told the jury that he spoke to Howe in the Spring of 1996, when she requested protection, complaining that her cover had been blown. "We were interested to see if there might be any further information we could gather about activities involving people at Elohim City who may have been connected with the bombing," said Rickel. Yet the agent insisted he had no idea of who Howe really was when the FBI raided her home in December of '96.^[436]

ATF Agent Angela Finley-Graham likewise claimed she was unaware that an FBI raid was planned on Howe's home. Yet as the McCurtain Gazette reported, this premise was destroyed when FBI Special Agent Chris Peters took the stand:

After explaining his role in the raid on the Howe residence, Peters was asked by defense attorney Clark Brewster during cross-examination who he was married to.

"Angela [Finley] Graham," Peters replied.^[437]

Strassmeir's own cover would finally be blown when the Gazette reported on July 14, 1996, that "a highly-placed source at the FBI has confirmed that Andreas Carl Strassmeir was a paid government informant sent by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to infiltrate Elohim City.…"^[438]

For his part, Strassmeir claims he was at work repairing a fence near Elohim City on April 19. Yet Strassmeir hasn't exactly held tight to his story. According to Glenn Wilburn, who has intensively investigated the connection, Strassmeir claimed he stopped working when it started to rain, then went home and watched the bombing on TV. When Wilburn checked the weather reports for the area that day, he found that it hadn't begun to rain until much later. Strassmeir then claimed the farmer he was working for was George Eaton, a friend of the murdered Mueller family. Later, according to Wilburn, Strassmeir stated that he couldn't recall exactly what he was doing until he talked to his attorney, Kirk Lyons.

"Andy has been damaged," exclaimed Lyons, angrily refuting the allegations against his client. "Anybody who puts out the lie that he was linked to the Oklahoma bombing in any way is going to pay for it."^[439]

Lyons claims his client had been dragged into the conspiracy by McVeigh's defense team — a ploy, he said, to muddy the waters by painting a vast conspiracy involving neo-Nazis in Europe and terrorists in the Mideast. "I call it the Space Alien Elvis Presley theory, and it's been fueled by nut cases and conspiracy theorists."

Obviously, Lyons himself is no nut case, merely a hardcore racist and neo-Nazi. The simple "country lawyer" married the sister of a prominent member of The Order. The ceremony was performed by Aryan Nations "pastor" Richard Butler at the group's compound in Hayden Lake.

At the 1988 Aryan Nations World Congress, Lyons suggested forming an ACLU of sorts for the extreme-Right, and attended the annual event in Hayden Lake as Louis Beam's representative. Not that Lyons was desperate for clients. He happily defended the Confederate Hammer Skinheads of Dallas, the National Socialist Skinheads of Houston, the White Vikings of Chicago, and WAR leader Tom Metzger, who was accused of inciting the murder of a black student from Ethiopia. Lyons also defended Holocaust revisionist Ernst Zündel, who claimed that the Nazi genocide was a Jewish invention, and other so-called "prisoners of conscience."^[440]

Lyons was also the guest of honor at the British Nationalist Party in London, where he applauded the Party's stance on white power, and like William Pierce, predicted a future race war. The erudite, ever-socially conscious attorney was also quick to defend Louis Beam, the Texas Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Beam fled to Mexico after being indicted for conspiracy to overthrow the government. As discussed, Beam was charged with harassing Vietnamese fishermen along the coast of Texas.^[441]

Interestingly, when Terry Reed was in Guadalajara on behalf of the CIA, working with Oliver North's "Enterprise," Beam mysteriously showed up as his neighbor. With the help of Lyons, Beam was acquitted after his wife shot and killed a Mexican Federalé.

Lyons has likewise vehemently defended Strassmeir's role in the bombing, and claims he is not a government agent. Interestingly, Lyons arranged Strassmeir's stays in Knoxville, Houston, Elohim City, and even Lyon's own home in North Carolina.

One thing that can be deduced from all this is that Strassmeir and Lyons aren't very good liars.

According to Stephen Jones, Dennis Mahon made statements to the effect of, "If a person wanted to know about the bombing, then they should talk with Andy Strassmeir because he knows everything."

For his part, Strassmeir claims he's not a government agent. In his Telegraph interview, he states, "I've never worked for any U.S. government agency, and I've not been involved in any intelligence operation since my discharge from the German army in 1988. This family (the Wilburns) is on a fishing expedition."

Yet in the very same article, Strassmeir admits that the bombing was the result of a government sting gone bad — a sting involving agents of the ATF. Considering the revealing nature of Strassmeir's information, the article, entitled "Did Agents Bungle U.S. Terror Bomb?" might just as well have been called "Thank You Andy." As Strassmeir states:

"The ATF had an informant inside this operation. They had advance warning and they bungled it," he said. "What they should have done is make an arrest while the bomb was still being made instead of waiting till the last moment for a publicity stunt."

Asked if he thought the alleged informant would ever speak out, he replied with passion: "How can he? What happens if it was a sting operation from the very beginning? What happens if it comes out that the plant was a provocateur? What if he talked and manipulated the others into it? What then? The country couldn't handle it. The relatives of the victims are going to go crazy, and he's going to be held responsible for the murder of 168 people. Of course the informant can't come forward. He's scared shitless right now." Before and after this outburst he kept repeating that he was not making veiled references to himself.^[442]

When I interviewed Strassmeir, he insisted that he had been quoted out of context. That statement, he claimed, was made to him by a former ATF agent. "He made some hints that the ATF probably knew that this was coming down," said Strassmeir. The source, he said, was "pretty reliable," although he was quick to qualify it by stating that he wasn't certain of the information.^[443]

Referring to the sting, he said, "What kind of gives me a bad taste, is that all the ATF agents were apparently not in the office during the blast, all of them." As to just what the sting involved, Strassmeir claimed he didn't know. But regarding John Doe 2, he said, "For some reason they don't look for this guy anymore. That, for some reason, I think is very strange."^[444]

If Strassmeir was involved in a sting operation, it may have been to stop the flow of Nazi propaganda emanating from the U.S. Such influences have made their presence felt in an unsettling way in Germany in recent years. It is likely that the FBI requested the assistance of the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), the German FBI, and the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German CIA, to help gather intelligence on such groups as Michael Kühnen's Anti-Zionist League, and their connections to both Arabs and American neo-Nazis.

FBI Director Louis Freeh had announced a joint U.S.-German intelligence gathering operation on neo-Nazi groups as far back as 1993. Freeh pledged to work alongside German law-enforcement to stem the spread of Nazism emanating from the United States.

On April 20, 1995, the American National Socialist Worker's Party announced that the Secret Service and ATF had been investigating Gary Lauck, leader of the domestic NSDAP/AO. Lauck, who publishes the neo-Nazi newsletter N.S. Kampruf, had been a major influence in Germany and was an object of concern among German authorities (German sedition laws forbid the publication of Nazi literature).^[445]

It seems that certain information provided by Strassmeir resulted in Lauck's arrest. With Strassmeir's help, the "Farm Belt Fuhrer" was arrested in Copenhagen and extradited to Hamburg. The arrest coincided with major raids by German police of NSDAP/AO cells all over Germany.

Lauck wasn't the only one beckoning young Germans to join the white supremacist movement. Research conducted by McVeigh's defense team indicates that Dennis Mahon traveled to Germany to recruit individuals into the Ku Klux Klan. A video reportedly shows Mahon in Germany in full KKK regalia, lighting a cross. Mahon himself joked that if he was fined the usual 1,000 Deutsche Marks for every time he gave the Nazi salute, he would owe 10,000,000 Marks.^[446]

Only a few weeks before the Oklahoma City bombing, Mahon received a phone call from Lauck. "Yeah, I got a call from Lauck sometime before the bombing... He told me that he was making another trip to Europe. I told him he was too hot, and he shouldn't go." Shaking his head, Mahon says now, "He should have listened."

Did the authorities know Lauck was coming? "Well, I did tell Strassmeir about the trip," said Mahon. (Or did Mahon tell the government himself?)

With Lauck's European arrest, the NSDAP noted, "U.S. officials have been doing extensive surveillance of Lauck's contemporaries in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and north Texas. These surveillance activities were being coordinated out of the OKC offices, according to our sources."

Interestingly, the newsletter added that "the OKC office of the ATF had plans to serve search warrants 'by the beginning of Summer' on several well-known white supremacists."

It seems the warrants were never issued.^[447]

Interestingly, Lyons told the German magazine Volkstreue: "There are many spies within [the Klan] and most of its best leaders have left the Klan to do more effective work within the movement.… The man who is mainly responsible for the success of the Klan in Germany — Dennis Mahon — has left the Klan."

Apparently, Mahon is still concerned enough about his responsibility to the white supremacist movement to have telephoned Germany with orders to kill Strassmeir. According to a conversation overheard by Cash, "[Mahon] wanted Andreas shot in both kneecaps and a confession elicited from him, then hold a 30-minute trial and then execute him."^[448]

Investigator Jeff Steinberg takes this one step further, believing that Mahon himself may be an ATF operative. He says the ATF had him on a charge then dropped it. "He may have been turned," said Stienberg.

Obviously, Strassmeir wasn't the only informant at Elohim City. Mahon, who knew Guthrie, McCarthy, Stedeford, and Langan, had introduced his new-found friend Carol Howe to the white separatist community. It was there that the attractive 24-year-old daughter of a prominent Tulsa businessman would meet Strassmeir. As Howe told the Gazette:

"I kinda had a relationship with him for a while. We talked about relationships once, and he said he wasn't interested in settling down with a woman. All he wanted to do was blow up federal buildings. It was also at that same meeting that he shoved his hand down my dress and I thought, well, he was doing something else, but now that I think about it, I think he was feeling for a wire."

Howe also said she overheard Mahon and Strassmeir discuss plans to bomb the Oklahoma City Federal Building. As Howe related it:

"I started going to as many of their meetings as I could and met a lot of people who were very secretive. But sometime in November there was a meeting and Strassmeir and Mahon said it was time to quit talking and go to war, and time to start bombing federal buildings."

"I reported all this to Angie."^[449]

According to her attorney, Howe provided telephone numbers, license tags, names, family trees, (including the location and design of tattoos) drawings of buildings, pictures, and descriptions and lists of individuals who were involved in criminal activity.

In fact, Confidential Informant 53270-183, or CI-183 (whose neo-Nazi handle was "Freya" and "Lady MacBeth") made over 70 reports to Finley-Graham during 1994-95 time frame. Finley paid Howe $120-a-week to provide the ATF regular updates on the activities at Elohim City, and those of Strassmeir and Mahon in particular. Finley-Graham filed her preliminary ROI (Report of Investigation) on Carol Howe on August 30, 1994. Entitled "White Aryan Resistance, W.A.R." It states, in part:

On August 24, 1994 this agent met with CI-183 in the Tulsa ATF Field Office and discussed in great detail the federal firearms and conspiracy violations of the White Aryan Resistance, "W.A.R."…

W.A.R. is described breifly as being radical, paramilitary, Neo-nazi, anti-government, and violent. W.A.R. has national and international affiliates to include the KKK and a racist following in Germany.…

W.A.R. has several training sites in Oklahoma. The primary training location is called Elohim City which is in a rural area near the border of Oklahoma and Arkansas in Adair County, Oklahoma. The members of the religious organization, The Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord live at Elohim City. The The Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord is a separatist organization that conjointly trains with and exchanges weapons with W.A.R.…

Regarding statements by Mahon that were secretly videotaped by Howe, Finley-Graham writes:

Mahon has made numerous statements regarding the conversion of firearms into fully automatic weapons, the manufacture and use of silencers and the manufacture and use of explosive devices. Mahon has stated both the knowledge and ability to manufacture a range of explosive devices. Mahon intends to manufacture and use any or all of the above when he deems necessary. Mahon and his organization are preparing for a race war and war with the government in the near future and it is believed that they are rapidly stockpiling weapons.^[450]

Mahon responded to Howe's allegations in the Village Voice: "This woman has got some shit on me. They're lies. But it's my word against hers.…"

Some shit indeed.

It was after Mahon and Howe had a romantic falling-out that the 24-year-old Howe switched from being an avowed white supremacist to a ATF informant. A temporary protective order was issued against Mahon by a Tulsa court in August of '94 after Howe alleged that Mahon threatened to "take steps to neutralize me," by breaking her knees if she tried to leave the white supremacist movement.^[451]

"I was contacted by Dennis Mahon after I ordered some literature from this group called White Aryan Resistance," Howe told the McCurtain Gazette. "He wanted to have a closer relationship than I did, and later he threatened me when I tried to get away from his group.^[452]

It was after Howe sought the restraining order that Finley-Graham recruited her into the ATF. Mahon claims it was Howe-the-informant who advocated most of the violence. Depicting himself as the fall-guy in the affair, he told the press, "They want to drag me into this thing and I barely remember even meeting Tim McVeigh. It was Strassmeir who was meeting with McVeigh, not me."^[453]

Curiously, Mahon later sent a videotape to McVeigh's prison cell expressing his views on the "movement." McVeigh's defense team was concerned about the video, not knowing whether the intended message "was to encourage the Defendant to 'sacrifice' himself for the eventual 'justice' of the cause or was a subtle threat intended to remind the Defendant that members of his family were vulnerable."^[454]

While Mahon vehemently denied Howe's allegations, the ATF's ROI of January 11, 1995 (three months before the bombing) states, in part:

During the Sabbath meeting, Millar gave a sermon soliciting violence against the US government. He brought forth his soldiers and instructed them to take whatever action necessary against the US Government. It is understood that ATF is the main enemy of the people at EC.… He explicitly told 183 that they were preparing to fight a war against the government.…^[455]

Howe reported to Finley-Graham that James Ellison also planned to reconstruct the CSA. Her report also stated that Millar planned to consolidate his compound with groups in Texas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma to prepare to fight a war with the government. Posse Comitatus members from Pennsylvania allegedly lent a hand by helping Elohim City residents convert their weapons to full automatic.^[456]

"These people have the means and the desire to start a terrible war in America," wrote Howe in a letter to her father in August of 1994. "They must be stopped, one group at a time."^[457]

To precipitate that war, Strassmier was apparently willing to procure grenades, C-4 and other explosives.^[458]

This is hardly surprising. In 1979, ATF informant Bernard Butkovich and FBI operative Edward Dawson led a group of KKK and Nazi Party members on a shooting spree during a parade in Greensboro, North Carolina, which led to the deaths of five members of the Communist Workers Party.^[459]

Interestingly, the Washington Post reported how Butkovich "urged members to buy equipment to convert semi-automatic guns to fully automatic weapons, and offered to procure explosives (including hand grenades)."

According to the New York Times, witnesses reported that Butkovich, a veteran demolitions expert, also offered "to train them in activities such as making pipe bombs and fire bombs," and that "the Nazis take weapons to the [Communist] rally in the trunks of their cars."^[460]*

With a map of the parade route supplied by Greensboro Police Department Detective Jerry Cooper, Dawson, Butkovich, and their KKK and neo-Nazi comrades were able to select the most advantageous site for their ambush.

According to Stephen Jones's appeal brief, Finley-Graham's handwritten notes confirmed a report from Howe that Dennis Mahon had bomb-making expertise, including allegedly exploding a 500lb ammonium nitrate bomb in Michigan five years earlier.^[461]

Howe also told the agents that Strassmeir and Mahon cased the Tulsa IRS building and the Oklahoma City Federal Building in November and December of 1994, and once during February of '95. Interestingly, Mahon told reporters that as a "revolutionary," he would indeed blow up the Federal Building, but do it at night, when no one was around.

Shockingly, most of this information was provided to the ATF before the bombing.^[462]

J.D. Cash, reporting for the McCurtain Gazette, claimed to have received information from an intermediary that a source at the headquarters of the Aryan Nations in Hayden Lake, Idaho, said that Mahon was "one of the ring leaders in the group that bombed the Federal Building." Cash, who interviewed Mahon on numerous occasions by posing as a white supremacist, wrote the following in the Gazette:

And he (Mahon) indicated that the results of the bombing were not as he anticipated. He felt like this would cause a coming together of radicals around the country who would begin a campaign of terrorism. In retrospect, he feels like the IRS building should have been bombed instead of the Murrah Building and probably should have been bombed at night. The day care center and the killing of the children was having a negative effect.

For his part, Mahon claims he has an alibi for the morning of April 19. Yet Bricktown witness David Snider is sure the driver of the Ryder truck which slowly made its way past his warehouse that morning was Dennis Mahon. Although the driver had long hair and was wearing sunglasses, Snider is adamant. He showed the Oklahoma County Grand Jury a video showing Mahon wearing the same sunglasses he was wearing on the morning of the blast.^[463] (See drawing)

Mahon, who said he believes there were others involved with McVeigh, told the Daily Oklahoman, "I have never been in downtown [Oklahoma City]. I am squeaky clean."^[464]

Interestingly, Mahon also claimed himself to be a make-up artist, and described himself as "the master of all disguises." In a somewhat startling statement, Mahon told Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Sunday Telegraph:

"I always deliver my bombs in person, in disguise," he said mischievously. "I can look like a Hispanic or even a Negro. I'm the master of disguise."^[465]

Reverend Johnny Lee Clary, a reformed Ku Klux Klansman who also testified before the County Grand Jury, told the Daily Oklahoman: "There is no mistake that the lips and chin and facial features [of the man Snider saw] is Dennis Mahon in one of those disguises."

"He always bragged he is the master of disguise," said Clary, who claims to be an ordained minister in Tulsa. Mahon "used to dress up like Mexicans and Orientals or like blacks."^[466]

Howe, who was debriefed by the ATF and FBI after the bombing, told agents Blanchard and Finley-Graham that the sketches of the suspects who rented the Ryder truck appeared to be Elohim City residents [and Mahon and Strassmeir associates] Peter or Sonny Ward. She also reportedly told the agents, "…no one in the world looks more like the sketch of John Doe 2 than Michael Brescia." Howe's report to Finley-Graham stated, in part:

SA BLANCHARD and SA ANGIE FINDLEY, ATF, talked with SA FINDLEY's confidential source "CAROL." CAROL stated she believes in 1994, she saw an individual resembling the composite of UNSUB # l in a white separatist paramilitary camp called "Elohm City" (phonetic) (EC). This camp is located around Stillwell, Oklahoma. CAROL knows this person as "PETE." CAROL has seen an individual named "TONY" resembling the composite of UNSUB # 2. TONY is PETE's brother, and is not well liked at EC. TONY would do as his brother directed however.

When CAROL saw the television pictures of TIMOTHY JAMES MCVEIGH, she said MCVEIGH doesn't look like "PETE." CAROL recalled that she did see a person who looked like MCVEIGH in a photograph in a photo album she saw at a 1994 Klan Rally.

NBC, putting the official Justice Department spin on the story, claimed Howe's reports contained no specific information regarding the plot. Yet according to the Gazette, "Howe was routinely polygraphed by the government during the time she was making her monthly reports. The government's own documents indicate she passed, 'showing no deception on her part in any polygraph examination.'"^[467] As Finley-Graham testified during Howe's pre-trial hearing:

Brewster: "Now, you were interested in knowing as much as you could about Mr. Strassmeir, weren't you?"

Graham: "Yes."

Brewster: "What kind of guns he had?"

Graham: "Yes."

Brewster: ''And the kind of threats he made about wanting to blow up federal buildings? You were interested in that, weren't you?"

Graham: "I was interested in anything I could find out about any violation."

Brewster: "And Ms. Howe told you about Mr. Strassmeir's threats to blow up federal buildings, didn't she?"

Graham: "In general, yes."

Brewster: "And that was before the Oklahoma City bombing?"

Graham: "Yes."

At the time of this writing, federal authorities were still insisting that Howe's reports contained no specific warnings of any plot to bomb any federal building. They also claimed that they were only alerted two days after the bombing, when they debriefed their informant.^[468]

Yet seems Howe's reports were specific enough to warn the ATF not to be in the office the day of the bombing. No ATF employees were among the 169 killed.

Nevertheless, federal prosecutors still insisted, after Howe went public, that the informant couldn't have had any specific information about the bombing, because she was "terminated" on March 27, three weeks before the attack.

Also "terminated" it seems, was the ATF's December, 1994 report regarding Howe's activities at Elohim City. That report, sources told The New American, contained specific warnings about the pending attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Building. Had this report, like so much of the ATF's evidence concerning their and the FBI's atrocities at Waco, conveniently "disappeared?"

Unfortunately for the ATF, the records which show that Howe remained an active informant until January 9, 1996, hadn't disappeared. As Finley-Graham's ROI of January 31, 1996 states:

It is requested that CI 53270-183 be retained as an active informant. It was requested by the Dallas Division office that this informant be retained as an active informant for the duration of the Oklahoma City bombing investigation.

On April 22, Finley-Graham sent the following memo to Lester Martz, SAC of the Dallas Field office:

This informant is involved with the OKC bomb case which is pending prosecution in Denver and was the key in identifying individuals at Elohim City, which is tied to the OKC bomb case.^[469]

In addition to denying her employment with the ATF, the bureau attempted to claim that Howe was "unstable," her emotional state and her "loyalty" to the ATF being in question. Yet once again, the official records, which describe Howe as "stable and capable," contradict these claims. As the ATF's ROI of April 22, 1996 notes:

[This agent has] known CI 53270-183 for approximately two years and can assert that this informant has not been overly paranoid or fearful during undercover operations.

As 24-year ATF veteran Robert Sanders told The New American, "Howe was 'a very good informant. She is obviously intelligent, resourceful, cool and convincing under pressure,' and has a good sense for 'the kind of detailed information that is most helpful' to law enforcement and prosecutors."^[470]

Yet the feds would make every attempt to distance themselves from their own informant in the aftermath of the bombing. Not surprisingly, this was the same ruse the FBI used in the aftermath of the World Trade Center bombing — pulling undercover operative Emad Salem off the case two weeks before the tragic attack (which he had also warned them about) then claiming that he was "unreliable."

Yet the FBI reactivated Salem after the bombing, just as they did with Howe, sending her back to Elohim City to gather additional information on Mahon, Strassmeir, and the others. Her new contract raised her pay from $25.00 per day to $400.00.

Curiously, neither the ATF nor the FBI offered Howe any protection. FBI agent Pete Rickel admitted during subsequent court testimony that Howe had come to him in May of '96 seeking protection, but he had offered none. In fact, Rickel said he didn't even make a note of their conversation.

Not only did the FBI fail to protect what the ATF called their "key" witness linking Elohim City to the bombing, but the FBI went one step further, leaking a confidential report to the press. As Finley-Graham wrote in her April 1, 1996 report:

On March 29, 1996 this agent received a telephone call from S/A Harry Eberhardt. S/A Eberhardt stated that the identity of CI 53270-183 had been severely compromised. S/A Eberhardt stated that a report by FBI agent James R. Blanchard II contained the formal name of CI 53270-183 and enough information to reveal the identity of CI 53270-183 without his/her name being used. S/A Eberhardt stated that he had attempted to relay this matter to FBI ASAC Jack McCoy, however ASAC McCoy showed little concern and denied that S/A Blanchard was at fault. S/A Eberhardt stated that he became irate because it was apparent that nothing was going to be done in an effort to rectify the problem or at least provide help for the safety of CI 53270-183.

Finley-Graham "immediately telephoned CI 53270-183 and informed him/her that their name had been disclosed and that he/she should take every precaution for their safety.... This agent told the CI that anything and everything will be done to insure his/her safety." It seems the government was fully aware of the danger posed to their informant, as Finley-Graham's report of April 22, 1996 notes:

Individuals who pose immediate danger to CI 53270-183 are: (1) Dennis Mahon, (2) members of Elohim City, and (3) any sympathizer to McVeigh.... This agent believes that s/he could be in serious danger when associates discover his/her identity.

In fact, one of Finley-Graham's initial reports indicates that Dennis Mahon "stated that he would kill any informant." Mahon subsequently sent Howe on a "night reconnaissance mission" to a secluded area — straight into the arms of a black gang, whose members pistol-whipped her and cut her with a knife. In what looked like a deliberate attempt to rid itself of an embarrassing informant, Howe was provided with no protection by the government which she had so loyally and courageously served.

When public criticism and liaze a' faire attempts to make Howe "disappear" failed, the government resorted to silencing her on phony, trumped up charges.

The "Justice" Department found it expeditious to indict Howe just in time for McVeigh's trial, putting her safely behind bars. The charge? Compiling a list of bomb ingredients, acquiring photographs of federal offices in Tulsa, and using her home telephone to distribute racist information — all undercover activities committed on behalf of her employer — the ATF. Howe was unanimously acquitted.^[471]

Attorney Stephen Jones believes that Howe was indicted "for the purposes of 'leverage' against her in order to keep her mouth shut about what she knows about the activities of Mahon and Strassmeir," and her employer, the ATF.^[472] As the reader will soon discover, this is not be the time the Federal Government would seek to silence and discredit one of its own informants.

Perhaps most surprisingly, during a July, 1997 pre-trial hearing for Howe, FBI agent Pete Rickel revealed that "Grandpa" Millar was a confidential FBI informant! When asked if Millar had been a source of government information or an informant, Rickel replied, "generally, yes."

It now appeared that there were at least three government informants inside Elohim City — Howe, Strassmeir, and Millar, the later two who were inciting a war with the Federal Government. Add to that the probability of Brescia, Mahon, and McVeigh being informants, and Elohim City begins to look like one great big government-run neo-Nazi training camp.

According to a former government informant interviewed by the Gazette, "It is typical for agencies such as the CIA, FBI and ATF to place multiple 'moles' inside a place like Elohim City and play one resource off the other, without either one knowing the identity of the other." Federal law enforcement, even different offices of the same agency, often do not share informants' names unless the mission calls for it.

"The reasons are obvious. First, there is no way a law enforcement agency is going to risk exposing the life of one of their assets should the other 'resource' succumb to torture or decide to double-cross the agency. And, of course, the monitoring of information can best be verified if neither resource knows who the other is. That's the only way this game works, and it's the only way it succeeds."

And what of Michael Brescia? Was he also an informant? Given the close, often revealing nature of a roommate relationship, it is likely that an undercover agent would room with another agent, even if nothing more than one might overhear the other talking in his sleep.

Strassmeir himself admitted the difficulty of going "deep cover," and having to keep your guard up 24 hours-a-day. "If you were an undercover agent," said Strassmeir, "you have to keep your guard up, you can't get close."

Is that why he roomed with Brescia, so he wouldn't have to maintain his guard? Not according to Strassmeir: "I would be very surprised if he (Brescia) was an undercover agent. He's a very honest, straightforward guy."

Strassmeir, along with friends Peter and Sonny Ward, fled Elohim City in August of '95, after McVeigh defense team investigators began looking into activities at the secretive compound.

Brescia left Elohim City around the same time as Strassmeir, with his fiancé Ester, traveling to Canada, and remaining mostly underground. He subsequently returned to his parents' house in Philadelphia, where he was actively sought by the media.

Curiously, like his friend Strassmeir, Brescia was completely ignored by federal authorities for his possible role in the bombing. He was finally arrested for the Wisconsin bank heist in February of 1997. Was it a legitimate bust, or did the arrest serve to silence him for his role in the bombing as the government tried to do with Carol Howe?

Shawn Kenny gave the FBI the tip that led to the arrest of Guthrie, who was apprehended after a high-speed chase outside of Cincinnati in January of 1997. He was found dead in his cell in Covington, Kentucky six months later, on July 12, hanged with a bed sheet. Authorities quickly ruled his death a suicide. According to a note found at the scene, Guthrie was apparently feeling guilty over his turncoat attitude, and didn't want to endanger his family.

"Sometimes it takes something like a suicide to settle a problem," he'd written to his attorney. "Especially one that's like… mine."^[473]

Yet Dennis Mahon told Village Voice reporter James Ridgeway he believes Guthrie was murdered because he had threatened to reveal information about the proceeds of the loot, which was believed to have gone to the Aryan Nations and other neo-Nazi groups. Guthrie was found dead only a few hours after telling a reporter from the Los Angeles Times that he intended to write a tell-all book that "would go a lot further into what we were really doing."^[474] He was also just days away from appearing before a grand jury.

With Guthrie's help, Stedeford was arrested on May 24 at the Upper Darby recording studio where he worked as a guitarist, and McCarthy was captured in the Bustleton section of Philadelphia. Thomas was eventually arrested in conjunction with several robberies as well.^[475]

Langan was arrested at his rented house in Columbus, Ohio several days after Guthrie, in a fusillade of bullets fired by over-eager FBI agents. The wanted fugitive, who had fired no shots, likened the arrest to an assassination attempt. Another silencing attempt perhaps? (The FBI claimed they were warned that Langan wouldn't be taken alive.)

Ironically, during his trial, the self-styled revolutionary shouted hackneyed phrases such as "Power to the People!" and told the judge that the ARA's mission was to overthrow the government and "set free the oppressed people of North America." Except, apparently, for Blacks, Jews, and homosexuals.^[476]

Yet eyebrows everywhere raised when Langan showed up in jail with pink-painted toenails and long manicured fingernails. Langan's lover, a transsexual named Cherie Roberts, appeared at the trial and exclaimed during a scene with U.S. Marshals, "I can't even talk to my wife!"

Roberts, who met Langan at a Kansas City group called "Crossdressers and Friends," called the neo-macho revolutionary bank robber by his charmed pet moniker, "Donna."^[477]

In a "recruitment" video confiscated during a search of Langan's house, "Donna" appears in a black ski-mask, exhorting potential revolutionaries to eradicate all non-whites and non-Christians from the country, and eliminate federal "whores."

"In solidarity with our Serbian brothers we understand the meaning of ethnic cleansing. To us, it's not a dirty word." Apparently, preoperative transsexuals were not included in Langan's targeted population group.

The 107-minute propaganda film, entitled "The Aryan Republican Army Presents: The Armed Struggle Underground," plays out like a bad Monty Python skit. Langan shouts orders in Spanish from behind a desk festooned with hand grenades and bank booty, while his "troops" goose-step in the background. "Our basic goal is to set up an Aryan Republic on the North American continent," states "Commander Pedro."^[478]

The neo-revolutionaries also expound their philosophy and tactics, which include, not surprisingly… blowing up federal buildings. "We have endeavored to keep collateral damage and civilian casualties to a minimum," announces their leader, "but as in all wars, some innocents shall suffer. So be it."

The video was completed in January, 1995, four months before the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building. Langan, for his part, says he had nothing to do with the bombing. "Most of my family, my siblings work in federal buildings," he told the Washington Post.^[479]

Yet given Langan's connections to Brescia, Strassmeir and Mahon, and their connections to Nichols and McVeigh, and the group's ties to the violent neo-Nazi underground, it is singularly curious why the FBI hasn't seriously pursued these leads.^[480]

Then there is the CSA's 1983 plot to blow up the Oklahoma City Federal Building, and Snell's strangely fortuitous statements about April 19, 1995.

What is even more shocking is why the ATF apparently ignored warnings from it's own informant, Carol Howe. Had they figured they could ensnare the bombers in a highly publicized bust?

"Elohim City is not a current subject of interest," a law enforcement official in Washington told the Associated Press, almost two years after the blast.^[481]

Was Elohim City of so little interest to authorities because it was a government-infiltrated spook center, kept on hand for contingencies, much as elements of the KKK were by the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover?

And what of Iraq's connections to Dennis Mahon? Is this a subject of interest? Was it just an innocent business relationship, or, like the Syrian's offer of funding to Robert Mathews, was it something more?

Continue the book on web page II

Go to Picture Page IV

The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror by David Hoffman

Click on image for more information

Copyright © 1998 David Hoffman

Published online with the irrevocable permission of the author to republish with attribution on a non-profit basis.

Hosted by the Constitution Society

Contents

The Oklahoma City Bombing
and the Politics of Terror

by David Hoffman