THE JOHN DOE TIMES
Vol. III, No. 18
16 February 1997
IN THIS ISSUE:
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The John Doe Times is an on-line, electronic newsletter published by the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment (Constitutional Militia) and friends. We are a proud and active member of the "Right Wing Media Cabal", Internet Division.
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http://nighthawk.reichel.net/patriot/main.mhtml
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If a Coverup Tree Falls in the Federal Forest, and the Networks Don't Notice, Does It Make A Sound?
John Cash's dynamite story on Carol Howe, simultaneously published here and in the McCurtain Gazette last Tuesday, was not picked up by the Asociated Press, either in Oklahoma or nationally. No network made it an item on their evening news, no talking head clucked over it on Sunday.
It may be of some interest that this story is getting more press attention outside the country than within. A German news crew, for example, is arriving tomorrow (Monday, 17 February) in OKC to begin filming a piece on Andreas Strassmeir and the bombing conspiracy. Andreas may yet end up on the bottom of the tiger cage at the Berlin Zoo, somewhat worse for wear.
The motives of the Oklahoma Associated Press for not running the story (indeed, for ignoring virtually all of the McCurtain Gazette's revealing stories on the bombing) is hard to understand (if not highly suspect) from a news organization's point of view. It may be petty personal jealousy, it may be simple stupidity. Yet, given the vigorous attempts on the part of the Clinton and Keating administrations to suppress this story, can we now count the Oklahoma City Associated Press operation as their handmaiden in coverup?
The "secret command post" for the bombing sting (which Carol Howe was taken to immediately after the massacre by the ATF) was in the AP's old offices in the basement of a building owned, we are told, by the Daily Oklahoman (or "Joke-la-homan" as OKC aficionados call it).
Now I don't think the AP or the Daily Oklahoman had anything to do with the bombing "sting", but one wonders if, at this late date of 20 months since that evil day, the Daily Oklahoman and Oklahoma AP are reluctant to admit that a little bitty newspaper from the southeastern corner had the skill and courage to report a story-- perhaps the most important American news story of the last quarter of the 20th Century-- that was under their own noses the entire time. "There is none so blind as he who will not see."
At any rate, when this story finally comes out as all stories do, it will be the Daily Oklahoman, the Oklahoma AP, the networks and the "mainline newspapers" who will be shamefacedly staring at their shoes. For then it will be apparent to all that when the little government Public Information Officer said, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...The great and powerful Oz has spoken!", that they obeyed and looked away. Ashamed they will be, and none more deservedly so than the Oklahoma AP and the Daily Oklahoman. For it was THEIR backyard, THEIR "beat" and more to the point-- THEIR friends and neighbors whose murderers were left to go free by the deliberate inaction of two culpable administrations. Shame on them, indeed.
-- Mike Vanderboegh,
Editor, The John Doe Times
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WASHINGTON WEEKLY ON OKC "MEDIA CABAL"
From: Washington Weekly
Subject: Oklahoma City Coverup Exposed
OKLAHOMA CITY COVERUP EXPOSED
But The Mainstream Media Are Still In Denial
By Edward Zehr
A paid informant of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
(BATF) has revealed to an Oklahoma newspaper that she reported to
the agency late in 1994 that three federal buildings, two of them
in Tulsa and the other in Oklahoma City, were being discussed as
potential targets for bombing by members of an extremist group
located in Elohim City, Oklahoma. The story has been largely
ignored by the mainstream media, although NBC News on February 7
carried a somewhat different version of the revelations that
later appeared in the McCurtain Daily Gazette, ambiguously
suggesting that although Howe gave the government information
regarding "alleged threats" prior to the bombing, there is "no
evidence" that she reported "specific threats" against the Murrah
Building until two days after the bombing.
Reporter J.D. Cash, writing in the February 11 McCurtain (County,
Oklahoma) Daily Gazette, is unequivocal in asserting that the
government had prior warning of the attack, however:
"During a series of clandestine interviews, Howe told the
McCurtain Daily Gazette that the BATF knew as far back
as the fall of 1994 that the Murrah Federal Building and
two other Oklahoma federal buildings had been targeted for
destruction by residents of and frequent visitors to an
eastern Oklahoma religious cult known as Elohim City."
Mike Vanderboegh, who edits the John Doe Times, a newsletter that
covers current developments in the Oklahoma City bombing story,
has alleged that ABC News had a more detailed story on the
government's prior knowledge of the bombing ready to run, only to
have it spiked by the network's management. Once more, the
American mainstream media have given convincing demonstration of
their inability to deal objectively and openly with a politically
sensitive story of vital interest to the public.
Lolling about on Air Force One shortly after the election,
President Clinton told reporters who accompanied him on the
flight that the Oklahoma bombing had been "a turning point in his
political fortunes." The militias, who played no part whatever in
the bombing, but like Richard Jewell, had much of the blame
affixed to them through the deft use of innuendo by the
mainstream press, found themselves lumped together with the
bombers under the designation "Right-wingers" as the designated
villains of the piece. "It broke a spell in the country as the
people began searching for our common ground again," said
Clinton, with self- serving unctuousness.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the Washington bureau chief of the
London Telegraph, whose keen observation of the American
political scene is unparalleled, since the time of Alexis de
Toqueville anyway, put it all in perspective:
"Clinton seized the moment. He blamed Right-wing radio
talk shows for sowing distrust of government institutions
and for creating a climate of "hate" that fostered recourse
to violence. He did not name the Republicans as
co-conspirators; he did not have to. The US media made the
connection for him.
"Tim McVeigh was the military expression of the Gingrich
agenda, opined the commentators. Republicans had failed to
understand that rhetoric has consequences, and now look
what had happened."
The Republicans were utterly cowed by the audacity of Clinton's
attack, unable to articulate a defense. Those few who attempted
to remind the public that it had all started with the savagery of
the government assault on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco
were quickly shouted down by an intensely partisan and
tendentious mainstream press.
"It worked like magic for Clinton," Evans-Pritchard observed.
"With control over the Justice Department and the FBI - which he
has politicized to an extraordinary degree - he has been able to
shape perception of the bombing."
The British journalist expressed doubt, however, in an article
appearing in the London Telegraph last November, that the
government would be able to "keep the lid on this case" much
longer. A number of local newspapers have reported allegations
that federal authorities have failed to pursue all of those
suspected of involvement in the bombing, in order to protect some
who were informants. And in October the Canadian Broadcasting
Company ran a documentary that put the story in an entirely
different perspective. To trace the story to its origins, it is
necessary to go back a dozen years or so to the group of self
described "racialists" who live in a small settlement in the
Ozark mountains of Eastern Oklahoma which they call Elohim City.
ELOHIM CITY
These people are adherents of a religious sect known as
"Christian Identity" which teaches that white northern Europeans
are God's chosen people, although they deny that they are
"racists", or even "white separatists." The distinction is a fine
one, to be sure. The movement's spiritual leader is an aging
Canadian named Robert G. Millar, who was once a Mennonite
pacifist. Millar settled in the location near Muldrow, Oklahoma
24 years ago with a small group of followers. Now the 71-year-
old leader is known as "Grandpa" to his flock of 80 or so
adherents, many of whom are related to him by birth or marriage.
Millar told the CBC journalist who interviewed him that his
followers are trained in the use of firearms when they reach the
age of 13 or 14. Local police who visited the site several years
ago to serve legal papers were greeted by armed teenagers,
Deborah Hastings of the Associated Press observes that, "People
seeking the company of like-minded zealots travel between Elohim
City and other extremist encampments, including the Hayden Lake,
Idaho, compound of Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler and the
Pennsylvania farm of Aryan Nations leader Mark Thomas."
RICHARD SNELL AND THE CSA
Thomas, who was recently arrested in connection with a series of
bank robberies, is a pivotal figure in the Aryan Republican Army,
an armed, militant (some would say terrorist) organization. But
the Oklahoma sect's connection with militant extremists began a
good deal earlier. During the early 1980s, a man named Richard
Snell made frequent trips to Elohim City accompanied by his
followers. Snell was a key figure in a group of Arkansas
extremists known as the CSA (The Covenant, The Sword and the Arm
of the Lord). Their goal was the violent overthrow of the federal
government. In the words of the script writer of the CBC
documentary, "Millar taught them about God, they taught Millar
about guns."
According to the CBC, in 1983 Snell and an associate named Jim
Ellison came up with several schemes to punish the nation which
they perceived to have strayed from the pathway of righteousness.
One of their plans was "to blow up the Murrah Building in
Oklahoma City, the same building that would be destroyed 13 years
later."
Kerry Noble, a follower of Millar and second in command of the
CSA, is shown in the documentary saying, "I still look at things
like this and realize how close we were, and, you know, that
this could have been me having done this...It was one of the
targets that we had talked about at CSA in '83. The day it
happened, as soon as I heard it on the news, I said, the right
wing's done [it], they finally took that step."
Noble explained that the Murrah Building had been considered as a
target because it was in a low security area and housed so many
government agencies. He said the plotters thought that it would
have more effect on the country "than if you did a building, say,
in New York City or something."
Jim Ellison, who was subsequently charged with sedition, admitted
during his trial that he had "scoped out" the Murrah building and
several others for Snell and one of his "associates." The did not
have a chance to act on this information, though, for on April
19, 1985 (note the date) they were besieged by federal agents
and, after holding them off for a time, surrendered and were
taken into custody. Kerry Noble was imprisoned for 26 months
after being convicted on weapons charges.
Richard Snell was later arrested for the murder of a pawnbroker,
whom he mistakenly thought to be Jewish, and of a black state
trooper. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He
continued his campaign against the federal government from his
cell on death row in an Arkansas prison, even editing a
newsletter. In March of 1995 the State of Arkansas set an
execution date for Snell -- April 19. This was particularly
infuriating to Snell's supporters, who associated the date with
the Waco atrocity. Possibly this is what motivated Tim McVeigh
to choose the false birth date of April 19 on the fake driver's
license which he used in the Oklahoma bombing.
Kerry Noble is convinced that McVeigh was influenced by Snell.
Asked if he thought it a coincidence that the ARA chose the
Murrah building as a target, Noble replied, "No, I don't think
it's any coincidence. When you bring that into account with the
declaration of war that we made, the pressure that the older
leaders of the groups are putting on the younger followers to do
something in a major way before they die - no, it's no
coincidence."
Millar, who visited Snell frequently in prison was non-committal
when asked whether he thought it possible that McVeigh was
inspired by Snell's execution to blow up the Murrah Building.
although he conceded that it was quite a coincidence and
expressed hope that the truth would come out at the trial.
WHO FINANCED THE BOMBING?
An Oklahoma grand jury concluded in its final report that the
bombing of the federal building had been financed with a theft of
guns in Arkansas on November 5, 1994, yet federal authorities
have concluded that the components of the bomb used in the attack
had already been purchased at the time of the robbery. McVeigh's
attorney has witnesses who place him hundreds of miles from the
scene of the theft at the time it occurred. How then were McVeigh
and Nichols able to support themselves during their extensive
travels in 1994 and 1995? Both of them made trips back and forth
across the country during the year prior to the bombing, and
Nichols traveled several times to the Philippines with his wife
during that time. Yet the two men were employed only sporadically
and the profits from their gun show business were not adequate to
finance their travels. A possible answer is suggested by the fact
that McVeigh's whereabouts are unknown for several days preceding
and following 11 of the 12 robberies committed by the ARA during
this period.
A possible clue was provided by Terry Nichols former wife, Lana
Padilla, who told federal investigators that she found more than
$60,000 in silver bullion in a Las Vegas storage locker rented by
her ex-husband, together with several masks and wigs. She later
told them that she had also discovered a bag containing $20,000
hidden in her utensil cabinet.
THE ELOHIM CITY CONNECTION
Bank robber Kevin McCarthy referred to Elohim City in testimony
he gave at the trial of Peter Langan, the leader of the ARA gang,
and Millar has confirmed that McCarthy lived there prior to the
Oklahoma bombing and that Stedeford, another member of the gang,
had also visited there from time to time. According to Millar,
both McCarthy and Stedeford were closely associated with Andreas
Strassmeir, who is thought by some observers to have been a BATF
informant, and Michael Brescia, who has been identified by
several witnesses as John Doe II.
The McCurtain Gazette has interviewed witnesses who claim to have
seen Strassmeir and Brescia with McVeigh on various occasions
right up to the period several days before the bombing. Two women
from Herington, Kansas who identified Brescia as John Doe II told
the FBI that Strassmeir, McVeigh, and Brescia were old friends.
This has been denied by Strassmeir's attorney Kirk Lyons. Brescia
has declined to comment on this or any other allegations made
against him.
Although McVeigh denies having visited Elohim City, law
enforcement authorities have told the McCurtain Gazette that
their intelligence reports have placed him there on a number of
occasions. There is also a record of McVeigh getting a traffic
ticket just a few miles from the entrance of Elohim City on Oct.
12, 1993. McVeigh is believed to have participated in military
maneuvers directed by Strassmeir at Elohim City on Sept. 12,
1994. About 70 people are said to have taken part in the
exercise. The Oklahoma grand jury that investigated the bombing
determined that the plot had been hatched on the following day.
Records show that McVeigh was checked in to a nearby motel at the
time. Telephone records show that on Sept. 24 somebody made the
first of a series of calls for the purpose of acquiring the
components of a bomb. The call was made from the home of Terry
Nichols in Kansas where McVeigh was visiting at the time.
Eleven days before the bombing Strassmeir, Brescia and McVeigh
were seen together at Lady Godiva's, a strip club located in
Tulsa, by several of the women who worked there. A video tape
that was made in the dressing room of the club that night was
shown in the CBC documentary. One of the dancers who appears in
the tape mentioned that a customer had told her that "You're
going to remember me on April 19, '95; you're going to remember
me for the rest of your life."
Witnesses identified the customer as McVeigh. One of the women
who worked at the club said, after being interviewed by the FBI,
that she might have to testify at McVeigh's trial.
CAROL HOWE
Carol E. Howe is a 26-year-old former actress and beauty queen
who has won awards for steeplechase competition and hunting. She
was an honors student in high school and college. More recently
she has worked as an infiltrator of extremist groups and paid
informant for the BATF, as has been revealed by the McCurtain
Gazette and confirmed by the Justice Department.
The newspaper conducted a series of interviews with Ms. Howe
after learning her identity in early December and contacting her
on Christmas Eve. During the course of the interviews she told
them of the white supremacist ARA at Elohim City that had made
plans to blow up a government building and had selected three
potential targets in Oklahoma. She also described "in great
detail" the work she did for Special Agent Angela Finley of the
Tulsa office of the BATF. The agency has confirmed that Howe
worked for them. In more than 70 reports she filed with the
agency, Howe revealed that two of the subjects from Elohim City,
Strassmeir and a man named Dennis Mahon, a former Oklahoma
Klansman, had been casing the targeted buildings. Howe went along
on one of the three trips the pair made to Oklahoma City for this
purpose .
According to Evans-Pritchard, Howe revealed in her monthly
informant's reports that the subjects she had under surveillance
had set a target date of April 19th of 1995 for the attack. She
submitted these reports to Angela Finley before the April 19th
bombing, not afterward, as erroneously reported by NBC. The
McCurtain Gazette is unequivocal in reporting what "Howe says is
the indisputable truth-- that the government had 'detailed prior
knowledge' of the plot to bomb the building, but somehow failed
to stop it."
Within hours of the bombing, Howe was taken to the basement of
the old Pepco building in downtown Oklahoma City for a
debriefing. She was able to identify John Doe I and John Doe II
immediately from sketches provided by federal agents. According
to Evans-Pritchard, she identified Brescia as John Doe II, but
John Doe I was not McVeigh as has been commonly assumed. The
British journalist told Jim Quinn in a radio interview that he
knows the identity of John Doe I, but is reluctant to divulge it
at present.
In the same interview, Evans-Pritchard dropped a bombshell of his
own. Although the government claims to have witnesses who
identify McVeigh as the person who came to the Ryder agency,
under the alias of Robert Kling, to rent the truck used in the
bombing, he could not have been there. McVeigh's defense team
have a video tape taken from a surveillance camera that shows him
sitting in a McDonald's in Junction City, eating a hamburger, at
the time the truck was rented. This might explain why the
description of John Doe I circulated by the FBI referred to a man
with "pock-marked skin, fairly stocky" who stood about 5'10",
whereas McVeigh is about 6' 3" tall, thin as a rail (160 lbs) and
has a smooth complexion.
Ms. Howe's story is supported by recently discovered documents
that the government is required by law to turn over to the
McVeigh defense team during the discovery process, but failed to
do so. Last month, in response to a request by McVeigh's
attorneys, the prosecution told Judge Richard Match that they had
no information linking Strassmeir to the bombings. The judge is
reported to have been outraged by the deception, telling one of
the prosecutors, "You lie to me one more time and you'll be off
this case!" He then ordered the government to turn over copies of
all pertinent documents to the defense. Consequently, McVeigh's
lawyers now have copies of all of the monthly reports that Howe
filed with the BATF. Presumably, this is what prompted NBC to
air their version of the story.
In addition to details regarding Mahon's and Strassmeir's alleged
surveillance of the targeted buildings, the intelligence reports
describe statements they are alleged to have made about their
plans to bomb federal installations.
The McCurtain Gazette further reveals that, "Howe was routinely
polygraphed by the government during the time she was making her
monthly reports to the BATF. The government's own documents
indicate she passed, 'showing no deception on her part in any
polygraph examination.' "
In a story that ran last July, the same newspaper quoted "a
high-level, anonymous source in the intelligence division of the
FBI who described Strassmeir as an 'intelligence asset' of the
BATF."
The Gazette says that "a former government undercover agent" told
them, "It is typical for agencies such as the CIA, FBI and BATF
to place multiple 'moles' inside a place like Elohim City and
play one resource off the other, without either one knowing the
identity of the other."
Dennis Mahon claims that Howe is the one who advocated most of
the violent acts at Elohim City. Depicting himself as the fall
guy in the affair, he told the press, "They want to drag me into
this thing and I barely remember even meeting Tim McVeigh. It
was Strassmeir who was meeting with McVeigh, not me."
THE MEDIA COVERUP
Meanwhile, the mainstream press continue to spin the story to
government specifications. A recent piece by the AP's Steven K.
Paulson repeats the statement by "government officials" that
"they never received specific threats about the Alfred P. Murrah
building before the bombing," and devotes much space to Mahon's
denials of the allegations made by Howe (which are outlined
rather sparsely). The following excerpt should suffice to
indicate just how far behind the power curve the AP is on this
story:
"The only apparent public link between McVeigh and Mahon's
white-supremacist group is a telephone call made by someone
using McVeigh's long-distance calling card two weeks before
the bombing."
A quick survey of the "Three Blind Mice," who provide the news
coverage for 70 percent of the population, reveals that ABC
apparently spiked the story. Referring to a segment on the
Oklahoma bombing that recently ran on "20/20", Jim Quinn
commented that, "There was a tremendous amount of pressure put on
ABC not to run that report, and, according to Reed [Irvine at
Accuracy In the Media], it came from the highest levels of the
Justice Department."
Presumably one story on such a taboo topic is about all we can
expect a network to hazard. The single network that carried the
Carol Howe story, NBC, apparently decided to settle for a
"limited hangout." (That is the journalist's equivalent of
copping to a lesser charge). The government knew all about the
plot, but no matter, they learned of it too late to do anything
about it. It will be interesting to see how NBC handles this if
the intelligence reports are made public in McVeigh's trial. Will
their statement be "no longer operative," or will they simply
mumble that "mistakes were made?" As for the other network,
Evans-Pritchard observed that, "As far as CBS is concerned,
they're so far out to lunch, they don't know what they're doing."
Nice going, mainstream media -- keep up the good work. And
whatever you do, don't allow yourselves to be distracted by those
gadflies in the "Right Wing Media Cabal." While you carry on with
the coverup, they'll just go on eating your lunch.
Published in the Feb. 17, 1997 issue of The Washington Weekly
Copyright 1997 The Washington Weekly (http://www.federal.com)
=================================================================
FBI VISITS WITNESS 11 TIMES BEFORE HE CHANGES HIS STORY TO THEIR LIKING.
"FACT-FINDING" BY THE RUBBER HOSE METHOD.
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By STEVEN K. PAULSON
Associated Press Writer
DENVER (AP) -- A federal judge has ruled there is no evidence a key witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trial was coached, even though he met with investigators 11 times before changing his story.
Defense lawyers objected to the testimony of auto dealer Thomas Manning, charging he changed his story to help convict bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh.
Manning sold McVeigh a car five days before the April 19, 1995, bombing, which killed 168 people and injured more than 500. Manning told investigators that McVeigh briefly stepped outside at a time he allegedly made two phone calls linking him to the crime.
U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch ruled Friday there was no reason to believe prosecutors coached Manning.
The day Manning and McVeigh met, investigators say two phone calls were made from a pay phone near Manning's Junction City, Kan., business. Both calls were traced to a telephone card found in the home of Terry Nichols, who is also charged in the bombing.
The first call was to Nichols' home. The second was made two minutes later to a Junction City business that rented out the truck used in the bombing.
In 11 interviews with investigators, Manning never mentioned McVeigh being absent, defense lawyers said.
Then, in November 1995 and October 1996, Manning recalled McVeigh was briefly absent while they were finalizing the purchase of the car.
The defense claimed the change indicated Manning had been coached into altering his story. In his ruling, Matsch stated that Manning denied prosecutors did anything wrong to elicit testimony.
AP-NY-02-15-97 0443EST
===========================================================
DUNLAP DROPPED AS WITNESS!
FEDS ABANDON LAST WITNESS THEY HAD WHO PLACED McVEIGH IN DOWNTOWN OKLAHOMA CITY!
DID TRUCK DRIVE ITSELF TO OKC AND COMMIT SUICIDE?
DENVER (Reuter) - Prosecutors in the Oklahoma City bombing case will be able to put a key witness on the stand over defense objections, U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch ruled Friday.
Timothy McVeigh and former army buddy Terry Nichols have been charged in the April 1995 bombing of the Murrah federal building that claimed the lives of 168 people. The two will be tried separately, with McVeigh's trial beginning on March 31 and Nichols to be tried at an undetermined date later.
A pre-trial hearing will be held next week, but the defendants will not appear when witnesses who might be able to identify them are expected to be present, according to court filings Friday.
Defense lawyers had objected to the testimony of Thomas Manning, manager of a tire store where McVeigh bought a car four days before the bombing and which he was driving when arrested, because Manning remembered 18 months later that McVeigh left the store for several minutes.
Prosecutors argue that in the interval, McVeigh telephoned Nichols and the rental truck agency where he allegedly rented the Ryder truck used in the bombing.
Defense attorneys suggested Manning's new information may have been the result of prompting by prosecutors, but the judge said there was no evidence to support that claim.
Prosecutors also withdrew from their witness list the only person believed to be able to place McVeigh in front of the Murrah building just before the bombing, a defense spokeswoman said.
The witness who was dropped, William Dunlap, told Federal Bureau of Investigation agents that he saw a white male get out of a Ryder truck parked in front of the federal building on the day of the bombing.
But he also said that while the person he saw looked similar to McVeigh, he could not tell if it was McVeigh.
Dunlap was the only person listed in a recent government filing that placed McVeigh so close to the building the day of the bombing.
Government prosecutor Larry Mackey declined to comment on specific witnesses, but confirmed the goverment recently shortened its witness list. A spokeswoman in the office of McVeigh's attorneys said Dunlap had been dropped.
21:51 02-14-97
