Dr. McStrangeVeigh
or
How I Learned to Start Worrying and Hate the OKC Bomb

by Edgar J. Steele

May 20, 2001

Several books now have been written about the OKC bombing.  I’ve read some of them and many, many articles, reports, lab analyses, court transcripts, pleadings and filings concerning both it and things related to it.  OK, ok…so I’ve read LOTS of stuff about all of it. 

For some reason, it has seemed important for my own personal progress to get as close to the bottom of this matter as I could.  Not because I could reach any insight that hasn’t already been attained by others with better research skills than my own, but because I seem to have chosen this single event as the one with which to reach a decision about my government…our government, that is. 

The OKC bombing has drawn me like a magnet and forced me to ferret out as much as I could, with the idea that, once I got to the bottom of things, I could finally choose up sides in this brewing rebellion that seems destined to split apart our country.  Not because of OKC itself, you see, but because of it and so many other things to which OKC seems to be related:  Waco, Trade Center bombing, TWA Flight 800, Ruby Ridge, Vince Foster and Ron Brown, among so many others.  The relationship isn’t necessarily direct, though many of the same faces do seem to be appearing again and again. 

 The appearance of impropriety was passed long ago and the time has come, for me at least, either to put aside all this “conspiracy theory” crap or to take the red pill and wake up.

 I have reached my decision and fear that I am lost, never again to be normal.

 Before I share my conclusions with you, however, please spend a little time with me, retracing some of the steps I took on my pilgrimage into the OKC bombing.  Though this is pretty long, please remember that I've spent a lot of time on this and we are going to cover a lot of ground today.  Much more than I normally do for one of my internet ponderings.  While I wrote virtually all of this just for this mailing, a small portion was lifted directly from the work of others.  I include no citations, footnotes or the like, whatsoever, simply for the sake of readability. 

 First, a synopsis of the government story on OKC:

 The Oklahoma City Bombing – the official story 

Timothy McVeigh, an ex-soldier and Gulf War veteran, together with his friend, Terry Nichols, planned to set off a monstrous fertilizer bomb contained within several barrels in the back of a rented Ryder truck in front of the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, in the single worst act of terrorism in US history, leaving a crater in the street 8 feet deep and 30 feet in diameter.  The building was fatally damaged, necessitating its immediate demolition.

McVeigh got the idea from reading “The Turner Diaries,” which described a similar incident, and enacted it in retribution for what the feds allegedly perpetrated at Waco.

Though they both stole some guns from a dealer to finance their nefarious plot, and stole explosives and detonation cord from a blasting site, Nichols withdrew from the plot long before McVeigh rented a Ryder truck, using a phony ID.  Nichols bought the fertilizer and diesel fuel (racing fuel, some maintain).  McVeigh, the night before the bombing, mixed the two together in barrels in the back of the truck, then spent the night at the Dreamland Motel, just up the road from the place he rented the truck, using his real name and ID. 

The next morning, McVeigh drove to Oklahoma City, stopping to ask directions to the Murrah Building at the outskirts of the city.  McVeigh parked the truck in front of the building, with many security cameras recording the proceedings, started the fuse, got in his car (which he had parked nearby several days earlier) and drove off.  The bomb exploded, ripping the rear license plate from McVeigh’s car as he departed the scene, caused a portion of the nearly-new Murrah Building to collapse due to several sheared support columns, killing 168 people.

McVeigh left town at high speed, got about 100 miles and was stopped by a county sheriff’s deputy for speeding and having no rear license plate.  He was arrested and his name put out on the wires.

The truck’s rear axle was found over 500 feet from the bomb crater and traced it to the rental shop using the VIN stamped on the rear differential housing.  The clerk at the truck rental shop gave McVeigh’s physical description, which was then matched to a physical description given by a desk clerk at the Dreamland Motel, who provided McVeigh’s real identity from its register.

The FBI called the county sheriff’s office from the wire report and had them hold McVeigh until they arrived.

McVeigh was convicted and sentenced to die.  Nichols was convicted and sentenced to life.

 OK so far, you might say.  However, there are many serious problems, quite aside from the fact that many aspects of the official story have changed markedly as time and the facts marched on.

 The problem with all the material, first of all, is that one must read it in order to make sense of it.  Then, because there is so much material, one must actually think about it.  Neither of these are activities engaged in by very many these days.  Thus, people just go blithely along, acknowledging that there must be some problems with the facts, but dismissing the rumors because they just don’t want to deal with the consequences of deciding that their government has lied to them.  Where’s the smoking gun?  Well, there are several, in fact.

 Here’s one, and it is, by itself, enough to make anyone willing to face uncomfortable facts decide that the official story is a lie:  The truck’s rear axle, which sat directly beneath the ANFO (ammonium-nitrate-fuel-oil) bomb should have been driven directly down to the bottom of the crater, as if pile driven, yet was catapulted 500 feet away.  Think about it…  Take your time.  There are more, but that one is quite simply inescapable.

 Ok, now that you’ve got a somewhat open mind about things, let’s take a look at some of the other problems with the official story.  I am not going to present all the facts and circumstances concerning each item, because that makes comprehending the enormity of this affair difficult, at best.  Nor am I going to present each problem.  Instead, I am going to present things in summary fashion.  I didn’t really investigate, then compile this material to convince others, but the context in which I found each thing was enough to convince me.

 At some point, everybody says, “Enough.  If this is true, then WHY would the government do such a thing?”  Well, we may never know the real truth, but I will present some theories and interesting coincidences after we cover the basics.  The “why” would necessarily explain why a coverup was necessary, and also leads one into considering conspiracies of varying complexity.

 A caution, however.  This is almost certainly going to be a one-way journey for you.  In fact, since you have gotten this far, you are already lost, but we’ll pretend for a moment that you can back out.

 The first step, deciding that our government not only would lie to us, but also would do something malevolent to its own citizenry (you and me, that is), is the most difficult.  It is relatively easy to decide that OKC is a lie.  However, then you need to decide if the lie was made innocently (i.e., accidentally), benevolently (intentional, but for our own good), as a coverup only (of incompetence or a rogue agency, or both) or malevolently. 

 There is, I sincerely believe, really only one conclusion that can be reached after honestly considering the OKC evidence.  From that point on, one is lost to an ever-expanding web of conspiracy.  Furthermore, making this transition allows one to suddenly see evidence that has been there all along, right in front of our eyes, of all manner of government skullduggery.

 Welcome to the monkey house.  You were warned.

 The Explosion(s)

The explosion, coming from the street, took out the first of several building support columns, inexplicably skipped around the next in line, then took out the one behind it.  This is similar to the bullet that made several right turns on its path through Texas Governor Connelley and into President Kennedy – the “magic bullet,” as it has come to be known.

Oddly enough, the explosion peeled the sheet rock off the backs of the building support columns, but not the fronts which were facing the “ truck bomb.”

Bomb experts point to the asymmetry of the blast(s) and resultant damage as proof that there were explosions inside the building, in addition to the truck bomb.

The official government line points to blue plastic fragments scattered about the blast site as evidence that McVeigh mixed his ANFO in several blue plastic barrels.  What this ignores, however, is the many blue plastic recycling barrels placed throughout the Federal Building, many shoved directly up against --- the concrete support columns, of course.  The perfect place to hide a bomb.

Brig. Gen. Ben K. Partin (ret, USAF), former commander of the Air Force Armament Technology Laboratory, a 25-year expert in the design and development of bombs, stated that his examination of the column bases showed the direct placement of high velocity shearing charges, owing to the characteristic blast marks. 

Partin noted that the inefficiency of a blast wave through air is dramatic, particularly outdoors, where the blast energy is dissipated in all directions with pressure and destructive force falling off precipitously as distance to a target increases. This makes air blast alone very ineffective against hardened concrete structures, such as the heavy, steel-reinforced columns of the Murrah Building. 

A new study, based on testing data and photographs supplied by the Armament Directorate, Wright Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida,  argues persuasively against the official government position that a single, large ammonium nitrate/fuel oil (ANFO) truck bomb parked outside the Murrah Building was solely responsible for the massive death and destruction.  The Eglin Blast Effects Study includes photographs and data from the Eglin blast tests, as well as extensive technical analysis of those tests, conducted by construction and demolition expert John Culbertson, who concluded that it is impossible to ascribe more than 1% of the damage that actually occurred on April 19, 1995 to a single truck bomb containing 4,800 lbs. of ANFO.   Furthermore, Culbertson also concluded that the resultant damage was really due to locally placed charges within the building itself.

After his examination, General Partin urged Senators and Congressmen to delay the destruction of the Murrah building site in order to examine the possibility of a second explosion, but he was ignored. In fact, the building was hastily demolished, with the debris hauled to a government site where it was all buried and is, to this day, under armed guard with access denied to all comers.

At least Two Bombs, Not Just One 

Immediately after the bombing, local television reporters from KWTV-9, KFOR TV-5 and Channel 4 News all reported that state, local and federal officials claimed that a total of three bombs had been placed inside the Murrah building.  They explained that two additional unexploded bombs found in the building were larger than the first one, and that the bomb that had exploded blew up inside -- not outside -- the building. TV-9 reported that "the U.S. Justice Department has confirmed" that other bombs were found in the structure. Video footage was aired, showing demolition teams removing unexploded bombs from the building, with rescue efforts stopped twice so that the teams could remove them.  In subsequent reports, within hours of the explosion, news crews reported that federal and local authorities had confirmed that the two other explosives had been "defused" and "moved off site." 

In one clip, Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating also confirmed the presence of other explosives: "The reports I have are that one device was deactivated ... [and] apparently, there was another device. Whatever did the damage to the Murrah building was a tremendous...a very sophisticated explosive device..."  

A Department of Defense Atlantic Command memo, issued one day after the bombing, says "... a second bomb was disarmed; a third bomb was evacuated. ..." A Federal Emergency Management Agency "SitRep" (situational report), dated April 20, 1995, also confirms the presence of three bombs inside the building. And a U.S. Forces Command daily log report from the same day said: "Two more explosive devices were located vicinity of explosion site. Evidently intended for the rescuers." Finally, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol radio log said, "OC Fire Dept. confirms they did find a second device in the bldg/OK. ..."  

Nor did the alleged truck bomb set off the inside charges, as was suggested early on.  Witnesses interviewed by local TV affiliates said they felt the Murrah building "shake and shift" for several seconds before "glass blew in" on top of them. One witness said he saw the ceiling collapse as he dove under his desk, "several seconds before the glass came in at me."  

Experts began to theorize that the ANFO bomb in the Ryder truck was indeed integral to what happened, but not as Washington said. Rather, they theorized that the ANFO explosion -- which came after the internal explosion -- was intended to mask that first explosion and gave the government plausibility for its single-bomb-outside-the-structure version of events; the version that eventually became widely accepted. 

A videotape of a business meeting in a neighboring building clearly recorded the two explosions, both visually, in the way the room shook, and aurally.  The two separate explosions also were recorded on seismograph equipment, as reported by the Director of the University of Oklahoma's Geological Survey, Dr. Charles Mankin, who stated that, according to two different seismographic records, there were two blasts, the second approximately eight seconds after the first. 

Though news media initially and extensively reported that there were two explosions, this version of events disappeared from print and the air waves within twenty-four hours, to be replaced by the official “one bomb” government story.

The Crater in the Street

There was no gaping hole in the ground where the rental truck was supposedly parked prior to exploding.   

Early TV shots showed a fire truck sitting on the exact spot, spraying water into the burning building.  Later, sheets of plywood were placed on the ground, supposedly to “cover the hole,” yet trucks were driving over them without falling into the “hole.”  The so-called 8-foot-deep crater under the truck was a myth. It was only shown as an artist's drawing because it did not exist in real life.   

Later, the ground at the service entry (water, gas, electric, telephone, sewer) location up the street was dug up with a backhoe.  Photos of that hole are sometimes represented as the hole left by the truck bomb.   

Two weeks after the bombing, Time and Newsweek magazines both ran "artist's conceptions" of the "immense 30-foot crater" allegedly left by the Ryder truck bomb. But news footage in the aftermath of the bombing showed no such crater. There are no photos of the crater where the truck supposedly stood.

The Truck Axle 

How did the axle end up over 500 feet from the crater, with the ID number in pristine condition, when it sat directly beneath the “bomb” and should have been mangled and driven straight down, into the crater? 

The truck essentially disintegrated (a neat trick, that, with anything short of a nuclear explosion), except for that key rear axle. 

FBI agents are said to have tracked down McVeigh's truck rental agency by finding a vehicle identification number (VIN) on the truck's rear axle.  No rear axle on any vehicle manufactured in America is imprinted with a VIN, even after recent legislation forcing manufacturers to place multiple VINS on the engine, firewall, and frame to discourage chop shops. When queried, a spokesman for Ryder told reporters than it does not imprint additional VINS on its trucks. The only conceivable number available on a rear axle is a part number, but a part number couldn't lead to the identification of a specific vehicle. 

The Truck Bomb, if it even Existed, Was not ANFO 

There were no billows of black smoke rising up in the sky after the bombing, as should have happened with a bomb which used large quantities of diesel fuel.  The TV shots clearly showed clouds of white smoke. 

The blast was supposedly off to one side of the truck’s location, not equally spaced around it, yet one cannot make an ANFO bomb into a shaped charge without some pretty impressive packaging.  There was no real damage to the buildings across the street. 

ANFO separates into its constituents quite easily, rendering any such bomb pretty ineffective.  McVeigh drove his truck bomb many miles to the Murrah Building.  The vibration and elapsed time would have seen the “bomb” separate into its constituent components by the time it supposedly detonated. 

Even when well mixed, the ANFO fertilizer bomb of the type used in the truck is largely ineffective and usually detonates only 90% of its material. This means that many hundred pounds of unexploded prill (unconsumed ammonium nitrate pellets) would have covered the area, none of which was ever found.  

The air at the blast site would have been unbreathable due to the extensive clouds of nitric oxide that should have been generated by the blast.  This would have condensed, together with water in the air, into nitric acid.  It would have been an hour before anybody without special gas masks could have entered the structure without being overcome.  Nobody was treated for any respiratory ailment more severe than smoke inhalation anywhere in the area that day.  There were no acid burns reported. 

According to Department of the Army and Air Force Technical Manual No. 9-1910, entitled Military Explosives, ANFO requires a greater than 99% purity of ammonium nitrate, as well as a specific dryness, before it can be mixed with diesel fuel to create an explosive substance. The manual further spells out that even under ideal conditions (not often reached even by experts) 4,800 pounds of ANFO explosive would create a much smaller crater than the one left in front of the Murrah building, and its shock wave could not possibly wield the force necessary to compromise the building's concrete support structure. The FBI claims that the ANFO charge was made from 50 bags of fertilizer. Ammonium nitrate fertilizer comes in much weaker concentrations than the 99%-plus required for explosives. 

According to the FBI lab, no ANFO residue was found on McVeigh’s clothing after it was first tested.  Only later, after retesting, did traces of ANFO appear on his clothing.  The FBI lab has since been proven by whistleblowers to have extensively falsified evidence in this incident as well as many others.

McVeigh: Patsy, Dupe or Manchurian Candidate

A sharp-eyed trooper pulls over McVeigh for his car lacking a rear license plate, which was found at the scene of the bombing.  Claim: it was blown off by the explosion, which would require an impressive force, indeed (just try to pull a license plate off a car sometime).  Why wasn’t the car’s paint even scorched?   

Why would McVeigh rent the truck with phony ID, yet use his own ID at the motel just up the road?  

How did they identify McVeigh from the verbal description of John Doe #1, given by the people at the truck rental agency?  (5’10”, 185#, stocky, green eyes, rough complexion with acne, deformed jaw.)  McVeigh stands 6’2”, 155#, blue eyes, clear complexion, no acne and straight jaw.  Supposedly, the first description matched McVeigh closely enough to allow the motel desk clerk to line it up with McVeigh’s registry entry. 

Tim McVeigh had previously expressed so much concern for the children killed at Waco by the BATF and the FBI; so much so that, in retribution, he supposedly set off his truck bomb, yet now supposedly views the kids in the Murrah Building’s day care center as merely “collateral damage?” 

Why did McVeigh set off the truck bomb directly beneath the day care center when, around back, an empty parking lot would have allowed him to set it off beneath the ATF offices?  The FBI did not even maintain offices in the Murrah Building, by the way. 

One TV news report said that then-President Bill Clinton "has called Gov. Keating ... and said three FBI anti-terrorist teams" were being sent from Washington, D.C., to OKC, ostensibly to investigate the incident. The report further stated that "the White House and Justice Department ... have said [the bombing] was the work of a sophisticated group ... and would have to have been carried out by an explosives expert."  McVeigh and Nichols were not explosives experts, critics of the government's official version of events point out.  

Having allegedly just committed a coldly calculated, carefully and meticulously planned mass murder, why did Timothy McVeigh then suddenly turn into a Clouseau-like klutz and do everything but send up a flare to draw attention to himself? Why did he go speeding out of the state at almost 100 mph in a yellow car with no license plate, virtually guaranteeing that he would be stopped? 

Timothy McVeigh is a highly trained combat NCO who won a Bronze Star for courage under fire in the Gulf. Having been stopped by a state trooper, being armed with a pistol, and knowing that he now faced either execution or imprisonment for the rest of his natural life, why did McVeigh make no move at all to defend himself or escape, instead surrendering like a little lamb? 

The Coverup

They bulldozed over the site almost immediately, which prevented any considered examination of evidence – just as they did at Waco.  The Murrah building was demolished two weeks after the attack; the site was covered with dirt and the building materials were trucked to an off-site dump manned by armed guards and buried.  Further independent analysis of the materials was not, and has not, been permitted. 

John Doe #2, seen by so many, just hasn’t been pursued (because he is a Fed, of course).  A key eyewitness, sitting just 20 feet from the truck when the driver alighted before the explosion, specifically ruled out McVeigh.  At trial, she testified that McVeigh “might have been” on the other side of the truck, but she never saw him.

 Later in the day of the bombing, and into the next day, details of the official explanations and information that had been witnessed or confirmed early on by news organizations, reporters and authorities handling the rescue efforts began to change.  

Within 24 hours, federal officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were saying that the explosion had not occurred within the building itself but instead the damage had been caused by a "car" parked in front of the building, loaded with the ANFO bomb. Soon afterward, the "car" became a Ryder rental truck and the explosives grew in size, to about 4,500 pounds.  

Also, officials began to discount the second- and third bomb story, instead focusing only on the outside, north-face explosion as the one and only explosive source at the entire complex.  

All live interviews with McVeigh prior to his execution were blocked by the government. Supposedly he had promised an interview with the 3 Major Networks (ABC, CBS, NBC), which "they" cancelled.   

The recent book, "American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing," by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck, two Buffalo reporters - appeared amidst great media fanfare, and amidst attempts on the first day of release to pass off someone else's voice on national radio as Tim McVeigh, calling the murdered Oklahoma City children "collateral damage." When the authors appeared on 60 Minutes II, on FOX and everywhere else --- they never offered to play any actual audio of the alleged 30 hours of taped interviews they had with McVeigh.  Nobody other than the authors of the book have yet acknowledged having heard any of the 30 hours of tape interviews. 

General Partin's press release, quoted above, was reprinted in the John Birch Society magazine New American. Based on this, the news media launched an egregious and bogus smear campaign against General Benton K. Partin, claiming falsely that he was a member of the John Birch Society and therefore a "right-wing extremist.” General Partin has been forced repeatedly to threaten lawsuits in order to obtain grudging and deliberately downplayed retractions and corrections of this allegation. His alleged JBS membership still appears in print and broadcast media today as fact, even though the media are by now perfectly well aware that the allegation is false. 

There have been repeated studies done by a variety of accredited explosives experts and professional demolition contractors, such as former FBI agent Ted Gunderson. All of these have stated their professional opinion that the destruction of the Murrah building could only have been accomplished with top-grade military explosives, detonators, and careful placement of multiple charges. Why have the media ignored these expert opinions? Why, indeed, have the media engaged in a concerted campaign to abuse, vilify, discredit and marginalize as a "crank" or a "right-wing extremist" any explosives expert or engineer who questions the official FBI version of the bomb's construction and explosive power? 

There is not a single piece of concrete evidence to connect either Timothy McVeigh or Terry Nichols to any militia or right-wing group. Why has the news media refused to acknowledge this fact and continued to spread the patently false assertion that McVeigh was a member of a militia group? 

Who is John Doe #2? Does he exist at all? The FBI first conducted a nationwide manhunt for John Doe #2 over a period of several weeks. Then they claimed that a U.S. Army soldier on leave was John Doe #2.  Then they claimed for some months that John Doe #2 does not exist, and that all the witnesses who saw him were mistaken. Now they are hedging again and say they have an "open mind" about whether John Doe #2 exists. 

In January of 1996, National Public Radio broadcast a half-hour special containing interviews with half a dozen witnesses who personally saw John Doe #2 in the Ryder truck with Timothy McVeigh on the morning of the bombing. These witnesses all had one thing in common; other than a cursory preliminary interview by the FBI they did not appear as witnesses at McVeigh’s trial. 

Eyewitnesses reported seeing the Ryder Truck at a place that the government claims is where McVeigh mixed the bomb in the back, together with several men, some in suits and some in military uniform.  Problem is, that was two days before McVeigh rented the truck. 

Eyewitnesses reported three different Ryder trucks in three different places in Oklahoma City just before the bombing, each with McVeigh either driving or riding as a passenger.  Each McVeigh was dressed differently.

Why won’t they let us see any of the numerous tapes taken from the surveillance cameras which recorded events leading up to the bombing?

Why?

Why was the reaction of the Clinton administration, blaming right-wing radio talk shows for the incident and demanding the most draconian police state legislation ever proposed in the United States, so swift and obviously organized? The air of orchestration about the entire government response did not escape notice even at the time, and was commented on by a number of observers across the political spectrum. 

Domestic anti-terrorist legislation which was, at the time, stalled in congress, suddenly sailed through without opposition, lending credence to the theory that the feds set up the whole incident as a "sting" operation in order to rehabilitate the discredited BATF and to get the  draconian Clinton "anti-terrorist" legislation passed and thus introduce gun confiscation and prior-restraint censorship of political speech into the United States.   

A blizzard of OKC-inspired "domestic terrorism" bills were rushed into Congress in a matter of days, some of them pre-written and already printed up BEFORE THE BOMBING. These proposed laws cover everything from banning virtually all privately owned firearms to unlimited and court-admissible Federal wiretaps to censorship of the Internet to the suspension of habeas corpus in "terrorism" cases to the grotesque destruction of the First Amendment advocated in Charles Schumer's bill H.R. 2580, which imposes a five-year prison sentence for publicly engaging in "unseemly speculation" and publishing or transmitting by wire or electronic means "baseless conspiracy theories regarding the Federal government of the United States” (supposedly, such as that you are now reading). 

How was a normally cumbersome, inefficient, and glacially slow legislative branch able to move so quickly, so comprehensively, and so efficiently in introducing these laws which would strip Americans of what remaining freedoms they have? 

By definition, a terrorist must take credit for his violence, or else there is no compelling reason to commit a crime. The specific purpose of terrorism is to gain a political end through the credible threat to commit future acts of violence. No one has claimed credit for the Oklahoma City bombing. Militia and right-wing groups, the alleged masterminds and presumed beneficiaries, have been particularly vehement in denouncing the explosion and in many cases have cooperated directly with Federal agencies to absolve themselves of any involvement. The only statement of alleged political motive comes from the very government which was attacked. 

The Murrah building reportedly warehoused documents relating to the attack on the Branch Davidians at Waco, and were destroyed in the blast. 

Is it just coincidence that a mountain of documents crucial to the claimants with Gulf War Syndrome were destroyed in OKC’s Murrah Building? 

Conspiracy

Warnings were faxed to Federal judges and officials, legislators and prosecutors, warning of a possible attack on a government building on the second anniversary of Waco on April 10th, 1995, nine days before the OKC bombing. 

U.S. Judge Wayne Alley, whose office was located in the Federal building, was warned several weeks in advance in a Justice Department memo to be prepared for an unnamed "terrorist act" directed against the Federal building.  Judge Alley made the above admission to the Portland Oregonian immediately after the bombing. He has since refused to repeat it or allow himself to be interviewed again. 

Why do the feds refuse to acknowledge the advance warning of the bombing of a federal building in OKC on the exact date of the bombing?  A Federal judge believed it enough to ensure his granddaughter was held out of the daycare center that day.  Not one ATF agent was in the building at the time of the blast, having called in sick at nine o'clock on a weekday morning, the offices staffed only with civilian clerical workers. 

When the word first got out that no Federal agents had been present in the building, the BATF produced its Resident Agent Alex McCauley who told a long story about his own heroism and that of a fellow ATF man who allegedly fell three floors in an elevator, walked away from it, and then helped rescue others trapped by the bomb. This was quickly exposed as a fabrication in an angry interview by building maintenance supervisor Duane James, who described McCauley's story as "pure fantasy.” James examined the elevator in question and also the central control panel and pointed out a number of technical and logical reasons why the miraculous elevator incident simply couldn't have happened in the way claimed. The McCauley account was quietly retracted and flushed down the memory hole by the ATF, with the help of the media. They now admit that McCauley was nowhere near the building when the bomb went off, although they refuse to discuss his exact whereabouts or the whereabouts of any other ATF agent at the time of the explosion. 

How is it that the bombing took place in a state with an ex-FBI, -ATF, -SS guy as governor (Frank Keating), a governor that blocked every effort at investigation except that by the feds involved?  How is it that none other than Frank Keating himself claims to be the one who found the axle? 

Here is the most bizarre “coincidence” I have encountered concerning this entire incident: Frank Keating’s brother Martin wrote a novel, “The Final Jihad,” read before published by many feds, which depicted an OKC federal building bombing, done by one “Tom McVey?”  This is so outlandish that I have no possible explanation whatsoever for it.  Tell me, though – do you believe in coincidence? 

Witnesses reported seeing three men in the parking garage of the Murrah building (it had nine stories above ground and had a four-floor parking garage underneath) working with "electrical equipment and pointing at various parts of the garage” in the days before the attack. Many survivors reported that some of these men were dressed in Government Services Administration uniforms but had never seen them before or since. 

An independent aerial photo was taken of a Ryder truck the size used in the attack parked at an Army facility near Camp Gruber-Braggs, Okla., outside of OKC, in the days leading up to the attack. 

Early TV news footage showed a clean cut, soldier-like Timothy McVeigh, in orange prison garb and in chains, being marched out of a local jail surrounded by police personnel through a moderately sized crowd which was not very loud, and was more or less simply looking on at McVeigh in stunned curiosity.  In re-runs of the footage, however, a lot of sound - booing and jeering - had been added to make it appear that the crowd was loudly "convicting" McVeigh on the spot, thereby giving the impression that McVeigh was already proven to be the main villain of the Oklahoma bombing.

 "Norma," a witness who worked in an office building just down the street from the Federal building, told reporter Sherry Koonce what she saw prior to the explosion: "The day was fine, everything was normal when I arrived for work at about 7:45 a.m. There was some talk about the bomb squad among the employees at our office. We wondered what it was doing in our parking lot. Around nine I heard and felt a huge explosion. Then someone said it had to be a bomb, and we all knew. I remembered the bomb squad in our parking lot and knew what had happened." 

"Norma" has since quit her job, gone into hiding and refused to speak again to any reporters or investigators. So have a number of other people who saw the heavily armed and equipped bomb squad in the area up to three hours before the blast. 

FBI informant and star witness Michael Fortier, who admits to trading his testimony for lenient sentencing on gun charges himself, claims that he and Timothy McVeigh scouted out the Murrah building several weeks in advance looking for the BATF offices therein. If that is true, why did Timothy McVeigh stop the Ryder truck at a gas station on the morning of the bombing and ask directions to the building? And why did he park the truck on the side of the building the farthest away from the BATF offices, when there was an available parking lot which would have placed the truck bomb almost directly under the seventh-floor windows of the BATF? 

Oh, and get this….McVeigh’s court-appointed attorney, Stephen Jones?  Guess who he is the officially-designated “special counsel” to ----- why, none other than the Oklahoma Governor, Frank Keating.  Just another “coincidence,” of course. 

What Really Happened

So, it is logical to ask in the face of all the foregoing, what is the real story?  What really happened?  Again, we may never know. 

 However, my personal inclination is to believe that McVeigh originally intended to blow up the Murrah Building and is, in what is now left of his original mind, sincere in his belief that he succeeded.  Obviously, he had help.  He protected his accomplices then, and has continued to do so.  Ever the good soldier, McVeigh is prepared to go to his death to protect his buddies. 

The problem is that his buddies never really were what they appeared to be.  They were government operatives.  McVeigh has never figured that out and has been kept incommunicado since his arrest to ensure that nobody helps him to that conclusion.   

And the government has done its best to “reeducate” McVeigh, through well-developed mind control techniques along the way to his stoic willingness to take his medicine.  The government’s leading mind-control expert has been keeping close company with McVeigh for the past couple of years.  This is the way they wish they could have used Lee Harvey Oswald.   

Even so, McVeigh has to die, to ensure that he never has the chance to come unraveled in public, so even the recent reprieve of his execution is simply a delay of the inevitable. 

It quite simply doesn't matter what role McVeigh had in the bombing, if any.  This thing is bigger than McVeigh.  This thing is even bigger than the other 168 victims.  The important issue is not whether the government had foreknowledge, as it seems certain to have had such.  The facts prove the government coverup.  The FBI/BATF knew about it and let it happen, or actually carried out the bombing - there is no difference between the two.  The conspiracy is apparent from the advance preparations by various government officials and agencies.  The important issue is the government's active involvement in killing so many innocent citizens, nearly all of them civilians and so dreadfully many of them actually children.  How did it ever come to this?  How did it ever become justifiable to commit such an unspeakable act in the name of furthering official political aims?  What on earth have we come to as a country?

So, why did the feds need to blow up the Murrah Building, killing so many innocent civilians?  I doubt that the answer is simple or straightforward, but let’s take a stab at it.   

First, consider the mindset of the habitual gambler:  just one more roll of the dice…just one more long shot at the track…just one more day riding that losing S&P 500 option contract…then things will turn my way and I’ll be on my way back.  The only hope I have of ever finding my way out of these woods, that I wish I had never entered in the first place, is to go deeper into them.  Maybe I’ll lose the next round, but then I won’t be that much worse off.  If I win, however, then I’ll be on my way to getting even, and my luck has got to change sometime.  I can’t lose forever, after all.  I just want to get even, I don’t even want to come out ahead any more.  Once I get even, I’ll quit and I’ll never do this again.  And so it goes…. 

For the moment, view both the FBI and the BATF as habitual gamblers.  They have won often enough to be confident they can’t lose forever.  Ruby Ridge was a major black eye to the BATF, a big-time setback.  One of many, to be sure, but the most public humiliation it had ever suffered.  They needed something to restore public confidence, to shore up their turf from encroachment by other government agencies. 

Waco was a chance to even the score, to rehabilitate the BATF’s tattered image in the public eye.  They went after the Branch Davidians at Waco in as high a visibility way as possible, calling in and lying to the FBI for its assistance once things started out badly, to ensure success.  They falsified affidavits to get the search and arrest warrants necessary to gain entrance by force.  After all, they had been phonying up affiants for years and never really been called on it.  No reason to believe it would make any difference this time. 

Just one more roll of the dice…then I can get even…then I’ll quit and never do this again… 

When things didn’t go exactly as planned at Waco (they were losing, of all things), they called in the FBI.  Then, when things stalled and showed signs of going from bad to worse, they called in the military; secretly, since posse comitatus laws precluded use of the military in domestic actions.  The military knows only what it is trained to do:  how to win, at any cost.  That’s the very reason for posse comitatus laws, after all.  Police actions are different from military actions and the founders of our country knew that, having experienced the difference directly at the hands of King George.  They were wise enough to establish safeguards against the use of America’s military against its own civilian population. 

Just one more time…..please, please, please….let it go my way this time.  I’ll never do it again… 

Waco, of course, went from worse to horrible.   They never really figured that all those people, especially the women and children, wouldn’t just throw down their weapons and surrender.  They also didn’t count on their men at the scene, their trained-to-kill-at-any-cost-amoral killers, to go completely native and decide to actually murder American citizens as retribution for their resistance and for having actually shot back. 

Now things have really gotten bad for the BATF.  The FBI also feels the heat, both from Waco as well as from a series of stinging disclosures following the World Trade Center bombing about the FBI’s falsifying evidence and its involvement in that bombing as a sting-gone-bad.  The near-total discrediting of the vaunted FBI forensic laboratory due to revelations about systematic doctoring of results in cases adds to the public embarrassment.  Additional scrutiny comes from the FBI’s involvement in the White House Travelgate controversy and the FBI files of congressmen found there without any sort of proper reason.  Then, of course, there are all these late-discovered OKC bombing documents.  There is talk of disbanding both agencies or, at a minimum, of a serious overhaul. 

Maybe just one more roll of the dice…. 

For years now, the FBI has had its agents (agents provocateur would be more like it, in many cases) scattered throughout the country, infiltrating all manner of organizations and groups with anti-government leanings.  It takes no stretch of the imagination to believe that Timothy McVeigh fell in with one or more of them, who would naturally have pretended to share McVeigh’s beliefs and been eager to help him along the path that he had chosen (or would their “help” be even more substantial; would they actually be instrumental in turning someone who merely complained loudly into a true criminal?) 

Consider the coincidences:  Ryder truck….perp tracked down using VIN allegedly stamped on truck axle…both lifted directly from the World Trade Center bombing cum sting-gone-awry.  Blown up Oklahoma City federal building, a’ la both  William Pierce’s The Turner Diaries and The Final Jihad, that remarkable book written by the brother of the Oklahoma governor.  It is easy to see how McVeigh was guided along his path by some rather unoriginal thinking on the part of somebody. 

Who that somebody is becomes apparent from the fact that not one single BATF agent was injured in the OKC blast, having all called in sick or been out in the field that morning.  Besides, the truck was allegedly parked beneath the day care center, rather than on the other side of the building in the empty parking lot and beneath the ATF’s offices, to ensure massive public outrage due to the loss of life of children (remember that Time magazine cover with the fireman carrying the baby?).  And, consider the public sympathy that both the BATF and the FBI received when it became known that they were the targets of McVeigh’s bomb…and as retribution for Waco, no less.   

Besides, this would help along the anti-terrorism legislation that was stalled in congress.  And the militia connection would foment even more public anti-gun fervor.  Remember how Clinton came out swinging, right after the OKC bombing, blaming militias and right-wing radio talk shows? 

What a public relations coup, they must have imagined.  And so it was…for a time. 

Problem is, this is the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.  Once again, they have messed up so badly and left so much evidence of their involvement that, like the habitual gamblers that they are, they are now even farther behind than before.  And the recent revelation of the withholding of thousands of documents from the McVeigh trial defense team is yet another black eye for the Justice Department and the FBI. 

Just one more roll of the dice…after all, even if I lose, I won’t be much worse off than I am now, and I could get even with…just one more roll of the dice… 

What is next?  All I can say for sure is, if ever I see a Ryder truck parked nearby, I’m going to run like hell.

Copyright ©2001, Edgar J. Steele

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