It’s Time to Reopen Investigations: OKC Bombing, TWA Flight 800

Similarities exist between the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the July 17, 1996, disaster involving TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island.  In each case, government officials discredited and/or ignored the testimony of numerous eyewitnesses and talented investigative reporters reached near-identical conclusions (i.e., that further investigation is needed to determine who’s really to blame).

I know:  “Conspiracy nut!  Conspiracy nut!”  Before you write me off as such, consider the fact that I’ve never completely bought into the claims of “truthers” who, according to the Urban Dictionary definition, “generally believe the U.S. government committed the acts of terrorism against itself” on Sept. 11, 2001.  Now, please keep reading.

OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING

Jayna Davis was an award-winning investigative reporter for KFOR-TV, Oklahoma City’s NBC affiliate, at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, and went on to write a book, The Third Terrorist, containing details from her personal investigation of the attack.  That book, by the way, made it to The New York Times Best Sellers list.

Below is a summary of what she uncovered in her investigation:

Within twenty-four hours, KFOR-TV’s news director tapped Jayna to cover the FBI’s international manhunt for the elusive John Doe 2. Initially, the Justice Department was desperate to find the mysterious Middle East suspect, but for unexplained reasons, abruptly abandoned its pursuit of the third terrorist. Did he even exist? Eyewitnesses assured Jayna that he did.

On June 7, 1995, KFOR-TV broadcast its first story in which witnesses identified the disgruntled Gulf War veteran, Timothy McVeigh, drinking beer with a swarthy, soft-spoken foreigner in an Oklahoma City tavern. Those brief moments of television history launched Jayna’s decade long quest to unveil the Middle East’s hand in the heartland massacre. In 2001, she founded a non-profit corporation, Journalists’ Committee for Justice, Inc, which has carried on the mission to seek justice for those who perished. In April 2004, Nelson Current Publishers released the New York Times best-seller, The Third Terrorist: The Middle East Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing. Jayna’s book outlines a riveting body of facts that convincingly links the Oklahoma City bombers to an Iraqi/Al-Qaeda hit squad, operating under Iranian state sponsorship. Why do questions still swirl around the official account of April 19, 1995? A CNN/USA Today poll reveals that 68 percent of Americans believe other bombing conspirators are still out there, somewhere. “I found them,” writes Jayna Davis, “hiding in plain sight."

With a journalist’s practiced skill, the author recounts her amazing journey leading from the smoking rubble of the Murrah Federal Building to the sleazy haunts of John Doe 2. McVeigh’s Middle Eastern cohorts have been solidly identified in dozens of sworn witness statements - firsthand accounts which are corroborated by a methodically assembled investigative dossier.

The most incriminating testimony centers around former Iraqi soldier, Hussain Al-Hussaini, whom witnesses place in the company of bomber Timothy McVeigh prior to the blast, seated in the passenger seat of the Ryder truck the morning of April 19, exiting that truck at ground zero, and speeding away from the bomb site in the only getaway vehicle targeted by the FBI in an all-points-bulletin for Middle Eastern suspects. Al-Hussaini has been unable to establish his whereabouts for the critical hours of that fateful morning, and more glaringly, the Justice Department has declined to officially exonerate him of suspicion.

TWA FLIGHT 800

As the bio on his web site confirms, Jack Cashill is an accomplished reporter, writer and novelist.  In a piece published at American Thinker today, he dissects eyewitness accounts of the incident that suspicious disaster that left all 230 people aboard TWA Flight 800 dead.  In addition, he points readers to an online documentary and illustrations that make his call for government officials to reopen their investigation all the more convincing.  Finally, he draws parallels to a more recent disaster, Air France Flight 447 and it’s similarities to the TWA flight.

I won’t outline his arguement in this space, but I will point you to the article.

-- Bob McCarty Writes