To die, or not to die?
Posted: May 31, 2001
1:00 a.m. Eastern
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23037
In less than two weeks, barring a dramatic change of heart
in Attorney General John Ashcroft, the most important piece
of evidence in the Oklahoma City bombing six years ago will
be destroyed.
That "evidence," as ironic as it sounds, is Timothy McVeigh.
Only McVeigh can piece together the rapidly-changing puzzle
that is the OKC bombing case, yet Ashcroft wants to kill
this evidence despite lots of other evidence that is
beginning to refute what we thought we knew about the Alfred
P. Murrah Building attack April 19, 1995.
I find that incredible, especially given these facts:
* Just this week, former FBI agents stepped forward in
interviews with CBS News' "60 Minutes II," to reveal that
evidence they gathered in the original OKC bombing
investigation was either routed "inappropriately" (let's
just put it that way), or was intentionally buried;
* New evidence has all but laid the blame for the attack
squarely on a cell of white racists, a group of which
McVeigh and, possibly, his co-conspirator Terry Nichols,
were involved;
* As WND has previously reported, this group – known as the
Aryan Republican Army (modeled, in part, after the Irish
Republican Army, according to documents) – frequented a
place called Elohim City, Okla., a place that was also
infiltrated by federal agents and was, at one time, being
considered for a raid in the weeks before the bombing;
* Sources tell me that the movements and activities of
McVeigh and these known ARA members were nearly identical,
years before the Murrah building was attacked;
* One figure, former German Army officer Andreas Strassmeir,
has been implicated by several sources as a prime "mover and
shaker" within the Elohim City community. Some have even
suggested he may have purposely instigated the attack at the
behest of the U.S. government, which had been monitoring the
ARA and its white supremacist, vehemently anti-government
movement. At a minimum, sources tell me Strassmeir was still
in the German Army during much of his contact with ARA
members (and McVeigh) and quite possibly during his Elohim
City days.
There is other anecdotal evidence as well.
According to a grand jury indictment against some ARA
members in January 1997, ARA members Scott A. Stedeford,
Kevin W. McCarthy and Mark W. Thomas were in Oklahoma April
14, 1995 – just five days before the bombing – to purchase a
white 1983 Chevrolet Surburban.
Part of the modus operandi of these ARA members, who were
eventually indicted for robbing banks throughout a
four-state area in the Midwest, was to purchase older,
"throwaway" vehicles to do their jobs and conduct other
"business." On April 19, 1995, you may remember, McVeigh was
eventually arrested driving an old Mercury Marquis. And
other witnesses reported seeing an old brown pickup truck
driven by persons seen with McVeigh in the days before the
bombing near the Murrah building that fateful morning.
Also, according to the 1997 indictment, "sometime between
August 16, 1995 and August 30, 1995, defendant Scott Anthony
Stedeford drove to the Elohim City, Oklahoma area and picked
up defendant Michael William Brescia. …"
McVeigh was known to hang out at Elohim City, and personally
I find it more than just a coincidence that these men were
in Oklahoma, and in particular Elohim City, in the days
before and weeks after the bombing.
Since news broke that the FBI, as usual, belatedly "found"
evidence that has yet to be turned over to McVeigh's
original defense team, Ashcroft and the Justice Department's
mantra has now become robotic: "Nothing in those documents
exonerate McVeigh," so he should be executed as scheduled,
and, well, you know, case closed.
But here's the thing – no one; not WND, not the sources we
are speaking with, no one – is asserting that McVeigh is
innocent. He's not. That's been established and there is no
arguing it. However, in this instance, that's also
irrelevant.
The larger point is this: FBI malfeasance, coupled with so
much other evidence, suggests McVeigh was anything but the
lone "nut" bomber the government has made him out to be. He
is a "nut," to be sure, but he wasn't alone, either.
Worse, the government knew – it knew – the other principles
that were likely involved in this tragedy. One agency, the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms – acting on a tip
from one of its own informants – even planned to raid Elohim
City at one point, to arrest the alleged suspects who were
already planning to use their stolen bank cash to finance a
major terrorist attack.
Yet – perhaps not so ironically – sources say it was the FBI
that thwarted those raid plans. Also, I find it highly
suspicious that it was the Justice Department, which
"manages" the FBI, that ended up bringing bogus charges
against the BATF's informant, Carol Howe.
Now, years later, we even have former FBI agents claiming
that evidence they personally gathered, that could have
proved beneficial to McVeigh, was also never turned in to
the head office or turned over to McVeigh's defense team.
Given all this, why in God's name would a man who purports
to be such a Christian ignore this evidence? Also, why would
an administration that didn't have a damned thing to do with
botching the OKC investigation in the first place want to
behave like its predecessor, which so obviously did botch
the investigation – or thwarted it, or hid key evidence in
it, or something?
Nobody is asking Ashcroft to delay McVeigh's death sentence
indefinitely, unless new evidence eventually produces
grounds for a new trial – which, again, couldn't be blamed
on the Bush administration.
Critics, including me, are simply asking Ashcroft and the
Justice Department to look into all of this again, so that
all guilty parties can be brought up on charges. We owe this
to the families of the 168 victims.
Or, is there so much at stake here – perhaps between
Washington and a foreign friendly government (Strassmeir
comes to mind) – that no administration dare risk letting
Americans, or the world, know the full truth?
Some people I have spoken to think that's the whole problem
in an nutshell. We'll see.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23037
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