By Ken Armstrong
Ken Armstrong is author of No Amateur Did This, published by Blackeye Press. No Amateur Did This brings to light the latest evidence about the April 19, 1995, tragedy in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Armstrong's powerfully lucid assessment of the facts makes for the most compelling reading ever to be put in print on this subject.
Ken Armstrong has been and continues to be a regular contributor to the Lighthouse Report.
For more information concerning this book, write to
Blackeye Press
c/o P.O. Box 1107
Aptos, CA 95001
On February 28, 1997 the Dallas Morning News released an article on the internet some seven hours before its print edition claiming that the paper had received documentation that Tim McVeigh, one of the defendants in the Oklahoma City bombing, had told a defense team member that he was the only driver of the Ryder truck that carried the bomb that was detonated in front of the Alfred P. Hurrah Building at 9:02 a.m. April 19, l995. The government's cover story has essentially fallen apart and "damage control" was needed for the wretched excuse of a prosecution in the case. As Tim McVeigh's trial date rapidly approaches many revelations have been brought to light that show that government attorneys have a case that is built on shabby circumstantial evidence and a limited list of witnesses. It appears that the government will be calling none of the one hundred or more witnesses who claimed to have seen either Tim McVeigh and/or John Doe 2 in Oklahoma City. In fact, it appears that the government will be calling none of the witnesses who were present at the seen of the crime.
The dwarfish list of witnesses the government says that links McVeigh to the bombing all come from Kansas, not Oklahoma City. Host of those witnesses seem to have faulty memories, can only say that McVeigh or Nichols were similar to the men they saw, or have changed their story since they were first interviewed by the FBI. Some of the government's witnesses have felonious records. Yet other witnesses who have no criminal record weren't considered by the government to be credible enough to be called to the witness stand.
When it comes to faulty memories, the government is also relying on forgetfulness while McVeigh is being tried in the court of public opinion. Many people who knew McVeigh in his hometown have said that they couldn't have recognized him from the composite of John Doe 1. Oklahoma State Trooper Charles Hanger (who initially arrested McVeigh) and Perry County District Attorney Mark Gibson discussed the possibility but came to the conclusion that McVeigh didn't match the composite.
Most Americans probably wouldn't have made that recognition either.
Americans have become accustomed to seeing the composites of John Doe 2. The composites of John Doe 2 are frequently shown in news articles or flashed on television screens, but the composite of John Doe 1 has been scarcely shown (if at all) since McVeigh was taken into federal custody. Certainly one of the most important aspects of faulty memories concerns John Doe 2. Scores of witnesses in Oklahoma City and Kansas saw John Doe 2 with John Doe 1. None of those witnesses testified before the federal grand jury that indicted Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols. None of those witnesses will be called by the prosecution once the trials begin. The government now wants John Doe 2 to be forgotten, saying that he was merely a case of mistaken identity where the Ryder truck was rented. The government itself seems to conveniently forget that John Doe 2 was seen in Oklahoma City prior to the day of the bombing... and on the day of the bombing. By not calling any witnesses from Oklahoma City it is essentially saying that the less than credible witnesses in Kansas are more credible than any of the witnesses in Oklahoma City where the crime occurred. That adds a grievous insult to the victims of the bombing and the witnesses who live in Oklahoma City.
A witness (Tom Kessinger) at Elliott's Body Shop said that John Doe 2 was with John Doe 1 when the truck was rented, but after being interviewed by the FBI seventeen times has changed his story and now agrees with the FBI that John Doe 2 was an innocent Army private stationed at Fort Riley ,Kansas. Kessinger will be a prosecution witness at McVeigh's trial, even though he has also changed his story about the type of clothing John Doe 1 was wearing.
The government's star witness is expected be Michael Fortier who pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony and firearms charges said to be related to the bombing. Immediately after entering a guilty plea Fortier was sent to the Federal Medical Facility at Fort Worth, Texas. (For mind control?) A more in depth review about Michael Fortier can be found in this writer's book "No Amateur Did This."
Credibility can be given to a legion of witnesses who won't be called if consideration is given to the possibility of "doubles" being used in this horrendous crime. McVeigh's federal arrest affidavit stated that three witnesses saw McVeigh in front of the Murrah Building before the Ryder truck ever arrived. Obviously, McVeigh couldn't have driven a truck while he was standing in front of the building. other witnesses saw him driving a Ryder truck elsewhere in the city at approximately the same time. None of those witnesses will be testifying at McVeigh's trial. The testimony of the witnesses who said McVeigh was in front of the building was credible enough to help the FBI obtain an arrest warrant for McVeigh but not credible enough to be called as witnesses at his trial.
Immediately after the bombing all points bulletins went out for three middle eastern men. The FBI and the prosecution want the public to forget about that, and they don't want the jury that will be selected to consider that fact. Again, witnesses in Oklahoma City aren't credible enough for the prosecution.
Although the government wants the public to believe that John Doe 2 was a case of mistaken identity, there is more than one John Doe 2. And there is a John Doe 3, 4, and 5 also. Some witnesses in Oklahoma City are quite aware of those facts.
One of the people believed to be one of the John Doe 2 suspects is Michael Brescia from Philadelphia, and was recently arrested for taking part in a series of bank robberies that occurred in seven states with a group calling itself the Aryan Republican Army. The government denies that Brescia had any role in the bombing but a civil suit brought by Edye Smith, who lost two sons in the bombing, names Brescia, McVeigh, and Andreas Strassmeir as defendants. Brescia is not middle eastern, nor is Strassmeir. Andreas Strassmeir spent seven years performing intelligence duties in the German army before coming to the United States. He is the son of the former Secretary of State of the German government, and the grandson of one of the founders of the Nazi Party.
Strassmeir came to the United States hoping to land a job working for the government in an intelligence capacity for the DEA, but has said that didn't work out. Strassmeir's sponsor was Vincent Petruskie a former U.S. Air Force colonel, and in Strassmeir's words: "a CIA guy my father knew." After coming to the States Strassmeir worked as a computer salesman in Houston and eventually settled at a Christian Identity compound named Elohim City where he was the chief of security. At least for a while Strassmeir was a roommate with Dennis Mahon, a former grand dragon of the Oklahoma Ku Klux Klan and connected with a variety of white supremacist organizations. Another short term roommate of Strassmeir's was Michael Brescia. The proceeds from the bank robberies that Brescia allegedly took part in was used to fund Aryan causes.
A former paid informant for the ATF, Carol Howe, has stated that she spent time at Elohim City and that Dennis Mahon plotted to blow up one of three buildings in Tulsa or a building in Oklahoma City. Howe told the ATF about the plans before the Murrah Building was bombed but the ATF discredited her by saying that her warnings were too vague. Howe also reported what she knew to the FBI after the bombing and although she was extensively debriefed by the FBI at the time her disclosures were eventually ignored.
Some suspect that Mahon was disguised as a middle easterner and was in a Ryder truck with McVeigh on the day of the bombing. But there were two Ryder trucks in Oklahoma City on the day of the bombing with similar characteristics. In one of the trucks McVeigh was said bywitnesses to be the driver of the truck; in the other truck McVeigh was said by witnesses to be a passenger. The distances and the time of the observations of those witnesses indicates two trucks. What's more, witness accounts also indicate that John Doe 2 had short hair and that John Doe 3 had long hair. The use of doubles and two trucks indicates that the bombing of the Murrah Building was a sizable undertaking. It also indicates that it is quite possible that there were two independent teams unaware of each others presence.
Since the bombing the ATF and other authorities have denied that there was prior knowledge of the bombing. Now that Carol Howe has came forward and stated that she told the ATF before the bombing about a plot the government can no longer deny that it had prior knowledge...only that it failed to act because Howe's information was "too vague."
The arrest warrant for Terry Nichols indicated that Nichols had bought diesel fuel prior to the bombing, but the amounts of diesel fuel purchased by Nichols was far short of the amounts that would have been needed to build an ammonium nitrate bomb with 4,800 pounds of fertilizer. The amounts more closely correspond to the amounts of diesel fuel he would have needed to fill his diesel pickup in order to drive round-trip to Kansas City from Herington, Kansas, and making another trip to Oklahoma City and back. Nichols readily admitted making those trips.
More importantly the arrest affidavit said that the FBI went to Geary State Fishing Lake where it believes the bomb was built and found an oily patch in the grass that it believed to be diesel fuel. But now the FBI's story seems to have changed again and the prosecution will be calling a witness who will testify that he was approached by McVeigh about obtaining racing fuel. Racing fuel was supposedly used to make the bomb more explosive than diesel fuel would have been.
Regardless of what type of fuel, a twenty-foot or twenty-four foot Ryder truck couldn't have carried a 34-0-0 ammonium nitrate fertilizer bomb big enough to have caused the amount of damage to the Murrah Building and surrounding area. The truck bomb may have only been a diversion from other bombs which were planted inside the building. The evidence points to more than one bomb being detonated at the Hurrah Building. (For more information about explosives evidence read "No Amateur Did This" (written by this writer.)
A recently released Justice Department Inspector General's report has indicated that Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, at one time the FBI's top expert on bomb residue, was correct in his assessment that evidence examined by the FBI crime lab had been mishandled and contaminated. The report also indicated that records had been altered by FBI supervisors, not only in the Oklahoma case, but many other cases as well. Obviously, Whitehurst will not be called as a witness for the prosecution. It is possible he will be called as a witness for the defense.
Whitehurst's complaints to the Inspector General have already led to him being called a rogue or mentally unstable by those who would have preferred that he had remained quiet about the improprieties in the crime lab and by supervisors. Before anything else can be stated by his adversaries about Dr. Whitehurst's competence one should consider that he had at one point underwent an independent psychological evaluation and it was stated: "It is important to note that Mr. Whitehurst's primary allegiance is to the truth and, as such, he may not always appear to be working in an agreeable fashion with prosecutors and his colleagues. This, of course does not make him oppositional. Rather it simply means he is doing his job."1
Dr. Whitehurst has been suspended with pay, but is not allowed to enter any FBI building, and was also ordered to turn in his gun and badge. All in all, it is not difficult to see that damage control is needed by the government for the cover up of the Oklahoma City bombing.
1. Pierre Thomas; The Washington Post, February 15, 1997,"Some Say the FBI Whistle-Blower is a Crusader. Some say He's Crazy."
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