http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/special_packages/smerconish
/4201780.htm
Posted on Thu, Oct. 03, 2002
Michael Smerconish | CONSPIRACY: The Okla. City-Sept. 11
Connection
I'M NOT A conspiracy guy. I think Oswald killed Kennedy, and
that he acted alone. And, like all Americans, I figured that the
tragic bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City was the
work of two sick ex-Army guys, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.
Now I'm not so sure.
Last night, my radio station, the Big Talker 1210, brought three
speakers to town for a remarkable presentation: Jayna Davis, a
reporter from Oklahoma City; Larry Johnson, ex-deputy director
of the State Department's office of counterterrorism, and
Patrick Lang, Mideast expert formerly of the Defense
Intelligence Agency.
In a spellbinding presentation, they made the case for a
connection between Mideast terrorism, the Murrah bombing - and
the attacks on the Twin Towers.
Now I know why former CIA Director James Woolsey has been quoted
as saying that when the full truth is known about these acts of
terrorism, the nation will owe Davis "a debt of gratitude."
Why her name is not already a household word is the greatest
mystery of all. Just this week, Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld said that U.S. intelligence has "bulletproof" evidence
of links between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Rumsfeld didn't
offer specifics. But here is what we know from the work of Davis.
When the Murrah bombing occurred at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995,
Davis was a reporter for the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City. She
was among the first journalists to broadcast that an enormous
truck bomb had rocked the heartland, killing 168 and injuring
hundreds.
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, the FBI launched an
international pursuit of several Middle Eastern-looking men seen
fleeing the Murrah Building in a brown Chevy pickup right before
the blast. Without explanation, that all-points bulletin was
later canceled. Two days later, Timothy McVeigh was a household
name. So was Terry Nichols.
And that's where most of us left the tale. Stunned, but
convinced that two Army buddies, homegrown terrorists, acted
alone.
Thankfully, Davis didn't close this book as quickly as most of
us did. She pursued the APB and set off to track reports of
multiple sightings of McVeigh with an elusive dark-haired
accomplice. The infamous sketch of John Doe No. 2 was always
tucked firmly in her grip.
Davis soon uncovered that several employees at an Oklahoma City
property- management company said they had seen a brown Chevy
truck like the getaway vehicle aggressively pursued by law
enforcement parked outside their office in the days before the
bombing. The company's owner was a Palestinian with a rap sheet
and suspected ties to the PLO.
Davis learned that, six months before the bombing, the
Palestinian hired a handful of ex-Iraqi soldiers to do
maintenance at his rental houses. Eyewitnesses told Davis that
they celebrated the bombing.
She was also made aware that these same men were absent from
work on April 17, 1995, the day McVeigh rented the Ryder truck
that carried the bomb.
While pursuing the story of these Middle Eastern men, Davis also
became aware of another ex-Iraqi soldier in Oklahoma City named
Hussain Hashem Al-Hussaini. She was taken aback to see that Al-
Hussaini's picture, when overlaid with the government sketch of
John Doe No. 2, was arguably a perfect match. He even sported a
tattoo on his upper left arm indicating that he likely had
served in Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard.
Davis then set about looking for a connection to McVeigh,
Nichols, Al-Hussaini and other Iraqis. It came when a colleague
located two eyewitnesses who claimed to have independently seen
Al-Hussaini drinking beer with McVeigh in an Oklahoma City
nightclub just four days before the bombing.
This convinced her station to run with the Iraqi-connection
story. It was met with some controversy.
The Justice Department responded that the identification of John
Doe No. 2 was merely a case of mistaken identity. Al-Hussaini
contacted local reporters, claiming to be falsely accused. Davis
did not back off because she believed she could repudiate Al-
Hussaini's alibi.
AND SHE LOCATED two dozen witnesses who identified eight
specific Middle Eastern men, the majority of whom were ex-Iraqi
soldiers, who were seen with McVeigh and Nichols. Two witnesses
named Al-Hussaini as the dark-haired, olive-skinned man they
observed one block from the Murrah Building just before daybreak
on the day of the blast.
She also uncovered evidence that implicated several of Al-
Hussaini's co-workers. One of these men was identified as
sitting in the driver's seat of a Chevy pickup at an Oklahoma
City apartment complex hours before the truck was abandoned on
the lot and towed to the FBI command post. According to police
records, the truck had been stripped of its vehicle
identification numbers and identifying body molding.
The story gathered steam. Here, it would appear, was the
deserted pickup that was the same vehicle that was seen speeding
away from the vicinity of the Murrah building with two Arab-
looking occupants.
And there was more. Five witnesses independently fingered
several of Al-Hussaini's associates as frequent visitors to an
Oklahoma City motel in the months, days, and hours leading up to
9:02 a.m. on April 19. On numerous occasions, the subjects were
seen in the company of McVeigh, and during a few instances,
associating with Nichols - at the same motel!
Davis spoke to the motel owner and a maintenance worker who said
the men came within feet of a large Ryder truck parked on the
west side of the parking lot at 7:40 a.m. on April 19. An
unexplained odor of diesel fuel emanated from the rear carriage.
Minutes later, McVeigh entered the motel office and returned the
room key. The motel owner then saw McVeigh drive off the lot
with a man identified as Al-Hussaini.
To this day, the Justice Department has refused to return the
original registration logs for the motel.
Davis has 80 pages of affidavits and 2,000 supporting documents,
and they suggest not only an Iraqi connection to the Murrah
bombing, but also to the attacks against the Twin Towers.
For example, Nichols was a man of modest means. Yet he traveled
frequently to the Philippines. Davis discovered that Nichols was
there, in Cebu City in December 1994, at the same time as the
convicted mastermind of the first World Trade Center attack,
Ramzi Yousef.
She has also found evidence that Islamic terrorists boasted of
having recruited two "lily whites" for terrorism.
Al-Hussaini had a very American response to Davis'
investigation. He sued for defamation. In a ruling on Nov. 17,
1999, federal Judge Timothy Leonard dismissed the case.
In 1995, the federal grand jury proclaimed in the official
indictment that McVeigh and Nichols acted with "others unknown."
And several members of the Denver juries who convicted the two
said publicly that they thought they had help.
Since 1997, Davis has repeatedly tried to interest the FBI in
her investigation. She has been rebuffed.
As for Al-Hussaini, after leaving Oklahoma City, he went on to
work at Boston's Logan International Airport, the point of
origin for several for the 9/11 hijackers, including Mohammad
Atta.
One more thing. That motel where McVeigh, Nichols and Al-
Hussaini were seen together was later visited (pre-9/11) by
Atta, Zacharias Moussaoui and Marwan Al-Shehi.
