NEW YORK TIMESAnother Oklahoma City Bomb Trial, and Still Questions RemainWed Mar 17 01:44:50 200464.140.158.123Another Oklahoma City Bomb Trial, and Still Questions RemainBy RALPH BLUMENTHALPublished: March 16, 2004 Matt Rourke for The New York TimesKen Thompson at the memorial for the victims of the 1995 bombing, in which his mother died. "I just want the truth to come out," he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/national/16NICH.html?ex=1079586000&en=28d01f61afa617dd&ei=5030&partner=PRESSDEMO OKLAHOMA CITY, March 11 — Sitting beside the Survivor Tree, the scorched elm that survived the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Ken Thompson and John L. Cole said it was easy to say why Terry L. Nichols, already serving a life sentence in a federal prison for conspiracy and manslaughter, should stand trial in a state court on murder charges that could send him to death row. The reasons, they said, were Mr. Thompson's mother, Virginia, and Mr. Cole's two toddler godsons, Aaron Coverdale and his brother, Elijah. They, along with 165 other people and one victim's fetus, were killed in the blast that prosecutors say Mr. Nichols helped Timothy J. McVeigh set off on the busy Wednesday morning of April 19 to vent their hatred of the government on the second anniversary of the F.B.I. assault at Waco.But beyond that, said Mr. Thompson, an executive with an antiterrorism institute founded here after the bombing, "I just want the truth to come out."Two lengthy federal trials in Denver in 1997 and the execution of Mr. McVeigh in 2001 would seem to have done that. Yet with an Oklahoma jury of six men and six women finally seated to try Mr. Nichols starting on March 22, this time on state murder charges in the rural community of McAlester, home of Oklahoma's maximum-security prison and death house 130 miles from the scene of the crime, the truth of who else may have conspired in the attack appears increasingly clouded.The state is armed with what federal prosecutors have called "an avalanche of evidence" proving that Mr. Nichols, 48, a slight Army veteran from Kansas with militant antigovernment views, bought the explosive materials and served as Mr. McVeigh's crony.But the defense is clearly based on showing, as Mr. Nichols's chief lawyer, Brian T. Hermanson, said in court filings, that Mr. McVeigh "conspired with others whose identities are still unknown" and "orchestrated various events and evidence so as to make it appear that Mr. Nichols was involved and, thereby, direct attention away from others."The biggest new questions involve Mr. McVeigh's contacts with a violent white supremacist underground and whether the government properly followed leads and disclosed what it had found, to the point, perhaps, of raising doubts about its portrayal of Mr. Nichols in the plot."Is it too bad they killed Tim?" asked Michael Tigar, the lawyer who represented Mr. Nichols in the earlier trial, in which he won an acquittal for Mr. Nichols on the federal murder charges. "If they really wanted to find out what happened, maybe some of the revelations, now that the cover is blown, maybe he would have talked. Who knows?"Prosecutors insist they have made available all exculpatory material, as required, and that nothing alters Mr. Nichols's guilt. "Whether or not anybody else is involved," said Sandra H. Elliott, an assistant Oklahoma County district attorney, "we can prove Mr. Nichols is."David Cid, a retired F.B.I. agent who worked on the case, said, "There's no obligation for the prosecution to prove that everybody else they haven't arrested didn't do it." But among the mysteries in the case is whether someone initially identified by the F.B.I. as "John Doe No. 2" but never found, accompanied Mr. McVeigh when he rented the Ryder truck used in the bombing and was with him elsewhere. There are also conflicting accounts of where and how the bomb was built and how valuables of a gun dealer ended up with Mr. Nichols.Senior F.B.I. agents were troubled enough by unresolved questions to request an interview with Mr. McVeigh just before his execution, The Associated Press reported this month. The interview never took place, the news agency reported.An Indiana University criminology professor, Mark S. Hamm, who wrote a book about a white supremacist group known as the Aryan Republican Army, said he had been listed by the Nichols defense as a potential witness to testify about possible links between members of the group and Mr. Nichols and Mr. McVeigh.Amazon.com: Books: In Bad Company: America's Terrorist Underground... Based on trial transcripts, interviews, a secret diary, newspaper accounts, andethnographic research, Mark S. Hamm provides a compelling history of the ARA ... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555534929/qid%3D993592284/103-3313245-2567043 Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering. 7 used & new from $14.00Have one to sell? Don't have one?We'll set one up for you.In Bad Company: America's Terrorist Undergroundby Mark S. Hammsee larger photoList Price: $28.95Price: $20.27 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. See details.You Save: $8.68 (30%)Availability: Usually ships within 1 to 3 weeks7 used & new from $14.00Edition: HardcoverSee more product detailsBetter TogetherBuy this book with The New Jackals by Simon Reeve today! Total List Price: $68.95Buy Together Today: $48.27Customers who bought this book also bought:Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World by Benjamin Barber (Author)Buy new: $10.50Used & new from: $5.99 Warrior Dreams: Violence and Manhood in Post-Vietnam America by James William GibsonUsed & new from: $6.00Customers interested in this title may also be interested in:Sponsored Links (What's this?) Feedback * Rate A Company Rate and Review any Company Give a rating out of five stars. www.RateThatCompany.com Product Details * Hardcover: 336 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.28 x 9.56 x 6.44 * Publisher: Northeastern University Press; (December 2001) * ISBN: 1555534929 * Average Customer Review: Based on 6 reviews. Write a review. * Amazon.com Sales Rank: 290,252 (Publishers and authors: improve your sales) Our Customers' AdviceSee what customers recommend in addition to, or instead of, the product on this page.Recommend an item! * 1 person recommended My Awakening: A Path to Racial Understanding instead of In Bad Company: America's Terrorist UndergroundSee more customer buying advice Editorial ReviewsFrom Publishers WeeklyWith the roots and trappings of terrorism at the forefront of national consciousness, Hamm's study of domestic terrorism is especially timely. Hamm (Apocalypse in Oklahoma), a criminology professor at Indiana State University, offers a detailed look at the Aryan Republican Army (ARA), a radical right cell that he suspects actively assisted Timothy McVeigh. Based upon information from shared acquaintances, a reconstruction of McVeigh's movements in the months preceding the bombing and other circumstantial evidence, Hamm theorizes that the mysterious "John Doe 2" allegedly seen with McVeigh on the day of the bombing may have been an ARA member. These disaffected racists cast themselves, not unlike McVeigh, as patriots battling a corrupt federal government. Hamm interviewed the group's principal leader, Pete Langan, at length in prison, where he is serving a life sentence, and the account is based largely on his perspective. The colorful Langan took a few ideologically warped young men and led them on 22 successful bank robberies. Not your run-of-the-mill right-wing radical, Langan is a pre-operative transsexual. Hamm perceives sublimated homoerotic undercurrents among these neo-Nazis; Langan hid his sexuality from his gun-toting cohorts. He now blames his criminal actions on "`gender dysphoria.'" Despite Hamm's compelling perspective on right-wing subculture, his central theory that the ARA actively participated in the Oklahoma bombing is less than fully convincing, based as it is on only circumstantial evidence. Regardless, and despite the overlong, overly simplistic psychological portrait of Langan, the book will interest readers seeking more information about this violent subculture. Illus. not seen by PW.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555534929/qid%3D993592284/104-8984296-5321534 ---------------------FindLaw's Writ - Cassel: An Interview with Litigator and Author ...... Acclaimed litigator and law professor Michael E. Tigar is probably best known forhaving representing Terry Nichols - Timothy McVeigh's co-defendant in the ... http://writ.news.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20020524_cassel_a.html [PDF] MICHAEL E. TIGARFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML... radicals. In 1966, Michael TIGAR as a candidate for the post of lawclerk to US Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. The ... http://www.lynnestewart.org/lsclassifiedmay20.pdf
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