Affidavit: McVeigh had high-level help

By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune
-Oklahoma City bombing
conspirator Terry Nichols says a high-ranking FBI official "apparently"
was directing Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up a government
building and might have changed the original target of the attack,
according to a new affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Utah.

   The official and other conspirators are being protected by the
federal government "in a cover-up to escape its responsibility for the
loss of life in Oklahoma," Nichols claims in a Feb. 9 affidavit.

   Documents that supposedly help back up his allegations have
been sealed to protect information in them, such as Social Security
numbers and dates of birth.

   The U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah had no comment on the
allegations. The FBI and Justice Department in Washington, D.C., also
declined comment.

   Nichols does not say what motive the government would have to be involved in the bombing.

   The affidavit was filed in a lawsuit brought by Salt Lake City
attorney Jesse Trentadue, who believes his brother's death in a federal
prison was linked to the Oklahoma City bombing. The suit, which seeks
documents from the FBI under the federal Freedom of Information Act,
alleges that authorities mistook Kenneth Trentadue for a bombing
conspirator and that guards killed him in an interrogation that got out
of hand.