NOVEMBER 1, 2002

By MARC PERELMAN FORWARD STAFF

Two legislators are asking the Bush administration to take a closer look at allegations that a Middle Eastern country, possibly Iraq, might have been involved in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

In recent weeks, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, both Republicans, have relayed to the Bush administration allegations of Middle Eastern involvement in the bombing set forth by Jayna Davis, a former Oklahoma television reporter, and Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer and a deputy director of the State Department office of counterterrorism from 1989 to 1993.

In response, the FBI briefed Specter and Burton staffers last week on the investigation, sources said. A follow-up meeting is expected in the coming weeks to clarify some points, the sources added.

Davis, who was one of the first reporters on the spot of the bombing in 1995, has claimed for years that Hashem al-Hussaini, a former Iraqi soldier working in Oklahoma City, is "John Doe 2," the figure in the famous sketch of a dark-complexioned man released by the FBI the day after the bombing.

Johnson said he was "convinced that there was a Middle Eastern tie to the bombing," although not necessarily an Iraqi, and that there were "serious questions about the handling of the investigation."

The Clinton administration concluded that the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred Murrah building, which killed 95 people, was masterminded and carried out by extreme right-wing militants Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. McVeigh was executed last year and Nichols is serving a federal life sentence as he awaits trial on state murder charge

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2002