Clinton Ignored Iraqi Links to Oklahoma City Posted July 22, 2002 By Ralph R. Reiland

Shortly after the explosion at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, an all-points bulletin (APB) went out over the Oklahoma City Police radio band alerting law-enforcement officers to be on the lookout for a "late-model Chevrolet full-size pickup, brown in color with tinted windows." The vehicle, said the APB, was occupied by "two Middle Eastern males, 25 to 28 years of age, six feet tall, athletic build, dark hair and a beard."

Seven weeks before the Oklahoma City bombing, on Feb. 27, the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare issued a warning of an impending strike on U.S. soil by Islamic terrorists: "Iranian sources confirmed Tehran's desire and determination to strike inside the U.S. against objects symbolizing the American government in the near future. These strikes are most likely to occur either in the immediate future or in the new Iranian year — starting 21 March 1995. Allegedly, the fatwa [religious order] is being disseminated to persons in the United States who have the capability to carry it out."

Two weeks later, on March 15, federal courthouses, including the one in Oklahoma City, received an alert from the U.S. Marshals Service warning that a fatwa had been issued to attack marshals or their buildings. "Iranian extremists," stated the alert, "want it made clear that steps are being taken to strike at the 'Great Satan.'"

The fatwa had been issued, explained the Marshals Service, because reportedly a copy of the Koran accidentally had been stepped on by deputy marshals in a fracas during the trial of the first World Trade Center bombing.

Separately, the FBI warned the General Services Administration (GSA) to increase security at the federal buildings it operated, including the Murrah Building. "We were told there was a fatwa threatening to target federal buildings," explains GSA spokeswoman Viki Reath. "We increased our patrols to 12-hour shifts."

On the day of the bombing, a highly regarded intelligence source in Saudi Arabia told Vincent Cannistraro, then the chief of counterterrorism at the CIA, that an Iraqi terrorism team was assessing targets to attack in Oklahoma City, Los Angeles and Houston. The Saudi informant, a member of the Saudi Counterterrorism Service, stated that he had seen the target list and that first on the list was the Murrah Building. Also on the day of the bombing, Abdul Hakim, speaking from a prison cell in New York City while awaiting trial for his part in the plot to bomb five American 747 aircraft, told U.S. authorities that Ramzi Youssef's "Liberation Army" was responsible for the bombing. Youssef, an Iraqi intelligence operative, currently is serving a life sentence for masterminding the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.

As the dust settled in Oklahoma City, we heard none of this history from Bill Clinton. Instead, he pointed to "hate-talk radio" as the culprit, the "purveyors of hate and division" who "leave the impression, by their very words, that violence is acceptable." The enemy, in short, was Rush Limbaugh, not Ramzi Youssef.

Falling into line, columnist Carl Rowan wrote that he was "absolutely certain" that "the harsher rhetoric of the Gingriches and Doles creates a climate of violence in America." Timothy McVeigh, rather than being a flunky for Islamic terrorists, was, in Rowan's words, a "triggerman" for the Republicans. Added Bryant Gumbel: "The bombing in Oklahoma City has focused renewed attention on the rhetoric that's been coming from the right and those who cater to angry white men."

"The Constitution gives me relevance," Clinton told the media the day before the Oklahoma City bombing. "The president," he said, "is relevant here." He was, of course, seeking to counter his growing irrelevance. After seeing Clinton's first two years of performance in the Oval Office, voters in November 1994 had put Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate for the first time in 40 years.

Writing in the London Sunday Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard describes how things had changed by election night 1996. "Relaxing on Air Force One after the election, Bill Clinton told reporters it was the Oklahoma bombing that proved the turning point in his political fortunes. It was the moment when the militias, the Christian right and the Gingrich onslaught against government all melded together in the public mind as one rampant movement of extremism. 'It broke a spell in the country as the people began searching for our common ground again,' Clinton explained."

In fact, Clinton accomplished the opposite. Instead of telling the truth and uniting Americans on "common ground" against a foreign enemy, he chose to divide the country in order to remain in office for four more years.

"We, as American citizens, had a right to know that the Iraqi regime was directly implicated in the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City," writes columnist Carol Devine-Molin. "With that pivotal knowledge, the American people could have geared up for the 'war on terrorism' much sooner, and possibly even averted the 9/11 disaster."

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2002

Answers

Little known facts:

Those same Middle Eastern men were detained in Dallas, but released to hop a plane and head out of the country.

Video of the area, just before the bombing, showed these ME men.

A bomb squad was going over the Federal Court House either just before or at the same time as the blast.

IMNSHO, I feel that the government turned a blind eye to the whole situation because it didn't want to accept the fact that terrorists could have possibly performed an attack upon US soil. They had rather place the blame on a 'strange' US citizen. (Note: I'm not saying Tim McVeigh didn't have anything to do with the bombing.)

As I sit here, I see the possibility of a whole bunch of terrorists being here. Some of the Iraq's Republican Guard were relocated here (actually large numbers). We have a huge ME population here. And the 20th hijacker had ties to Oklahoma City and met Atta here. But things being the way they are, we can't profile. :( To damn with being PC, it is past time we profile.

Oh yeah, the spare leg that was covered in military type clothing which was discovered at the bombing site, was determined to be someone from the ME. I don't think that there is a chair for that person at the Memorial.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2002

Glad someone brought this subject up. I agree there is substantial evidence of a ME connection for OKC, but that leads to the following, for which I would appreciate feedback.

So far, I think the evidence is overwhelming that the fertilizer truck did NOT on its own cause the most extensive of the damage. Also, that the FBI and BATF knew to be out of the building that morning.

Until recently, it looked like an inside job to me. However, if I am to accept an ME role, I don't think that negates that charges appear to have been set inside the building. Anyone have any explanation for that? (The recent flap about the female FBI agent in the northern states - Minnesota? - and her smoking memorandum leads me to believe that mid level agents may have known about OKC without being personally responsible for the bombinb, so I feel better about that now.) However, I don't believe that the truck, no matter what was in it, caused that damage.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2002

Brooks,

From all that I have read, there appear to be huge discrepancies on just how much ferterlizer was used in the bomb which was contained within the truck. Some claim that there wasn't nearly enough present (even if the largest volume is considered) to do that much damage to the building.

Besides, the truck bomb breaks all laws of physics. An explosion at such a close range doesn't suck the debris into it but blows it away, especially at such short range. The buildings right around the Murrah building were damaged some, but not near the extent that the Murrah building was damaged. The support columns alone show that they exploded IN THE DIRECTION of the truck bomb. Besides, there is the fact that a truck bomb cannot (easily) be made to be a directional blast which would be required to do the damage to the Murrah building but virtually left the other buildings unharmed. There was no evidence that the truck had the thick steel required to make the blast a directional one.

Theories suggest that there were amounts of high grade explosives on the support columns that directed them towards the location of the truck bomb. Besides, CNN reported during the rescue efforts that more explosives were found in the building and that the rescue efforts had to be called off while the explosives were removed. McVeigh tried to get that into the trial, but was shut down. And as usual, we don't hear that much about it anymore. Add the fact that the debris was removed without letting investigators do their job, and taken to an undisclosed location. The debris was removed very quickly.

The area around the bombing sight is very small roads and cramped buildings. It honestly isn't as large a space as it appears in pictures.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2002

apoc, exactly. But if charges were also set at various points inside the building, seems far more likely that it would be an inside job. Have you heard any explanation for how a ME terrorist could have pulled that off? That's what I am trying to understand.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2002

Brooks,

I have heard that a couple days prior to the explosion, that there were some people dressed as maintenance men (would could be described as ME) were in the building.... hummmmmmm... working. From what I have heard, there is some serious question as to if these people actually worked in the building at all! Also, there are reports that at least two of them were seen in the building early that morning (possibly checking out their previously placed packages???) but left just before 8am.

I have had a great number of discussions with people about the bombing. A bunch of the .mil that I know disagree that McVeigh did it (at all...), but CURRENTLY cannot say anything. I think that at some point in time, those stationed here and had to respond will start to voice their opinions.

There is also the fact that bad things happened to a few of the rescuers and first responders. Seems like a few of the first in the building have died, all of mysterious looking reasons, but declared natural causes or suicide. (Kinda hard for a left handed person to blow his brains out with his right hand with a shotgun after slitting his own throat! Oh yeah, the shotgun blast was determined to be 3' away! But it was ruled suicide!)

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2002

Other truck bombings.

The Kenyan Embassy truck bombing (1998):

(CNN) "I looked up and saw a burning vehicle. I saw the charred remains of what was once a human being. I saw the back of the [embassy] building totally ripped off. I saw utter destruction, and I knew no one was going to take care of me." Bushnell said.

The three-story yellow embassy building, built in the 1970s to withstand an earthquake, had not collapsed. But the seven-story office building and secretarial college next door did.

The Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) bombing, also in 1998, was similar but the truck was prevented from getting right up to the embassy building and "only" 11 people were killed.

Then there was the truck-bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, 1983, which got Sweetie to Lebanon.

Oops, almost forgot--Khobar Towers in Saudi (1996).

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2002