New OKC Revelations Spotlight FBI Involvement In Bombing
Nichols' claim that McVeigh had government handlers supported by huge
weight of known evidence
Prison Planet | February 22, 2007
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
New claims by Oklahoma City Bombing conspirator Terry Nichols that
Timothy McVeigh was being steered by a high-level FBI official
are supported by a plethora of evidence that proves McVeigh did not
act alone and that authorities had prior warnings and were
complicit in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported yesterday,
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.
The affidavit was filed in a lawsuit brought by attorney Jesse
Trentadue, whose brother Kenneth was tortured and beaten to death in
an
Oklahoma City federal prison in 1995. Authorities claimed Trentadue
had committed suicide but he was being held in a suicide proof
cell at the time and autopsy photos
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/OKC_Trentadue.htm
of his body showed he had been shocked with a
stun gun, bruised, burned, sliced and then hung.
Jesse Trentadue has amassed evidence that his brother was mistaken for
one of Timothy McVeigh's alleged bombing accomplices
and in attempting to get him to talk Federal agents went too far and
then tried to instigate a cover-up of the murder.
Just like 9/11, the official story of the Oklahoma City Bombing, that
McVeigh alone carried out the attack using a fertilizer truck bomb,
is contradicted by a plethora of eyewitness account as well as
physical and circumstantial evidence.
[VIDEO]
- In early April 1995 a Ryder truck identical to the one used in the
bombing was filmed by a pilot
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/OK/TRUCK/truck.html
during an overflight of of an area near Camp
Gruber-Braggs, Oklahoma. A June 17th, 1997 Washington Post article
authenticates the photos as being exactly what they appear to
be, photos of a Ryder truck in a clandestine base at Camp Gruber-
Braggs. Why were the military in possession of a Ryder truck
housed in a remote clandestine army base days before the Alfred P.
Murrah bombing?
- In a 1993 letter to his sister, McVeigh claimed that he was
approached by military intelligence and had joined an "elite squad of
government paid assassins." McVeigh often contradicted himself and
changed his story on a whim to fit in with the latest government
version of events. Is the Camp Grafton footage evidence of McVeigh's
enrollment in such a clandestine program?
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- Multiple reports of Arabs at the scene assisting McVeigh were
ignored and surveillance tapes were withheld under national security.
The likely reason for this was the fact that Bush senior and Clinton
were responsible for bringing in
http://www.prisonplanet.com/news_alert_082593_iraq.html nearly 1,000
Iraqi soldiers captured by U.S. forces during the 1991 Persian
Gulf War, some of whom were involved in the bombing.
- The FBI claimed McVeigh scouted the Alfred P. Murrah building weeks
before the bombing and yet on the morning of the attack he
stopped at a local gas station to ask directions, lending credibility
to the new claims that he was being controlled by other
conspirators and that the target of the bombing had been changed.
[VIDEO]
- Original reports of two explosions and several failed devices being
defused by bomb squads were buried by the establishment as the
official explanation that McVeigh acted alone was pushed. Scientific
analysis
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/OK/PARTIN/okm.htm
conducted by General Benton K. Partin revealed core
columns were blown out from within the building and the extensive
damage to the Alfred P. Murrah building was completely
inconsistent with the explanation of a single and relatively weak
fertilizer truck bomb.
- Many eyewitnesses reported that bomb squads in full reaction gear
were seen around the building immediately before the blast.
Police officer Terence Yeakey
http://www.apfn.org/APFN/yeakey.htm ,
who helped save dozens of victims, was one such witness.
Yeakey compiled extensive files on his observations but was later
found with his throat and wrists slashed having also been shot in the
head after he had told friends he was being followed by authorities.
- Several individuals received prior warning that the bombing was
about to take place. Bruce Shaw, who rushed to the Murrah building
to find his wife who was employed there with the Federal Credit Union,
testified that an ATF agent told him that ATF staff had been
warned on their pagers not to come to work that day.
- The aftermath of the bombing led to the passage of the Omnibus Crime
Bill and the demonization of the 'Patriot Movement', which
was spreading like wildfire as opposition to federal government abuse
grew following the events at Ruby Ridge and Waco. The
consequences of the Oklahoma City Bombing effectively dismantled the
Patriot Movement before the turn of the century.
In December, we reported on a video
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2006/181206mcveighvideo.htm
that shows
McVeigh at a U.S. military base that specialized in explosives and
demolition training over a year after he supposedly left the army.
The tape, released by film producer Bill Bean, was the subject of a
Hustler Magazine feature story.
Appearing last night on George Noory's Coast to Coast broadcast,
America's biggest late night radio show, Alex Jones said he
expected to talk to Jesse Trentadue imminently and it was further
suggested by Noory that he and Jones should travel to Nichols'
prison to interview him in person.
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/okc_bombing_new_revelations_spotlight_fbi_involvement...
==
The Trentadue Files
New documents offer details of the FBI's secret OKC investigation
INTELWIRE.com | February 21, 2007
J.M. Berger
Click here for the full documents and an index of their contents.
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/trentadueindex.html#docindex
UPDATES
9/21/2006:
The full collection of Trentadue documents can be found here
http://intelfiles.egoplex.com/2006-12-05-trentadue-2-docs.pdf . This
100-page PDF contains unredacted versions of some of the documents
below as well as previously unreleased documents.
12/5/2006:
The FBI has released two addtional documents, which can be viewed by
clicking here .
Original documents obtained by INTELWIRE cast additional light on
individuals and groups mentioned in the Trentadue documents.
Click here
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/2006_08_27_exclusives.html for
documents related to Andreas Strassmeier and other OKC
figures involved in a Texas militia group. Click here
http://intelfiles.egoplex.com/#guthrie for documents related to Aryan
Republican
Army and Richard Guthrie.
Several newly revealed FBI documents provide the most dramatic
evidence to date that the Oklahoma City bombing was carried out by
a conspiracy involving more people than Timothy McVeigh and Terry
Nichols.
Attorney Jesse Trentadue has disclosed more than 50 pages of FBI
internal documents, which are at the center of a court battle over
the FBI's obligation to disclose information about the Oklahoma City
bombing investigation. All currently available documents are now
available to journalists and the public on this site.
The documents have been credibly authenticated during the course of
Trentadue's lawsuit. Some of the documents were provided to
Trentadue in redacted form by an undisclosed source. The lawsuit aims,
in part, to obtain the unredacted versions of this documents.
Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney, became involved in the lawsuit
after the death of his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, in federal
custody on Aug. 21, 1995. Kenneth Trentadue's death was initially
declared a suicide by prison officials, but the family discovered
signs of numerous injuries when preparing him for burial. The family
was awarded more than $1 million after winning a wrongful death
suit against the government.
Jesse Trentadue's lawsuit over the FBI's disclosure stems from a
belief that his brother was killed because of his resemblance to
Richard Lee Guthrie, a white supremacist and bank robber who has been
credibly linked to the Oklahoma City bombing by numerous
reports, including those from the Associated Press, J.D. Cash of the
McCurtain Gazette and In Bad Company
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&tag=nabobsnet-20&camp=1789&creative...
n.com/gp/product/1555534929?v=glance%%26n=283155%%26n=507846%%26s=books
%%26v=glance , a 2001 book by criminology
professor Mark S. Hamm.
Guthrie was later apprehended by authorities. Just days before he was
scheduled to testify against one of his accomplices in the bank
robbery gang, Guthrie was found dead of a purported suicide in his
cell. His alleged means of suicide was hanging, the same cause of
death originally cited by prison officials for Kenneth Trentadue.
Trentadue has presented the documents linked below as part of an
effort under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to force the FBI
to disclose its internal files on the Oklahoma City bombing, including
unredacted versions of some of the cited documents. The FBI is
notoriously unwilling to provide information about the Oklahoma City
bombing in particular, and is also known for being generally
unresponsive to FOIA requests. Thousands of pages of documents
relevant to the OKC investigation were also improperly withheld by
the Justice Department until after the conviction of Timothy McVeigh,
whose attorneys had requested the documents in discovery.
In the course of Trentadue's lawsuit, the FBI has denied the existence
of some documents (including those linked below), but the
agency was forced to withdraw that claim after Trentadue presented
copies of the documents in court as proof of their existence.
Trentadue has not disclosed how he obtained the documents, but their
authenticity is no longer in dispute.
The FBI has subsequently attempted other legal strategies to avoid
disclosure, in full or in part, and the case is ongoing. For more
information on Jesse Trentadue and the lawsuit, click on the following
links to recent news articles:
* Attorney Offers Document On OKC Warning
http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_315122423.html
* Documents May Prompt Congressional Probe
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47447
* Jesse Trentadue's Long Battle For Proof
http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_2589.shtml
* Terror, Lies and Memos
http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_2590.shtml
* Testimony: ATF warned before OKC ( Alt. link )
http://www.mccurtain.com/headline.shtml
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47320
* FBI Files Sealed Documents in OKC Suit
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46983
The documents are indexed in detail below, with links to facsimiles
which were provided to INTELWIRE by Jesse Trentadue. The
documents reveal that the FBI investigated links between the Oklahoma
City bombing and white supremacists (both individuals and
groups). The documents also flatly contradict various claims made by
the FBI in the years since the bombing.
The Trentadue Documents
The following documents can be viewed by clicking the links below, and
they can also be navigated in order from the first page
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/1trentadue.html .
With all of these documents, the important point to remember is that
the FBI has fought against disclosing them, despite various legal
obligations to do so, including as part of discovery in the federal
trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. The author of this Web
site does not necessarily stipulate that every lead reported within
the documents is provably true, but many of them are highly credible
and all of them are worthy of further journalistic investigation.
The documents were filed as exhibits in Jesse Trentadue's FOIA lawsuit
against the FBI and have been credibly authenticated during
the course of those proceedings. They were provided to INTELWIRE by
Trentadue. The dates provided usually reflect the date the
document was created, but in some cases may reflect the date the
document was received and filed by FBI headquarters.
Some documents contain signficant redactions. The documents were
provided to Trentadue in redacted form by an undisclosed
source. One document has additional redactions added by INTELWIRE out
of privacy concerns. The specific redaction is noted in the
index below, and an unredacted version is available for mainstream
journalists interested in pursuing this story.
FBI TELETYPE, AUGUST 1995
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/1trentadue.html
* White supremacists planned to bomb U.S. targets
* Unnamed suspect may have assisted McVeigh
This redacted document is connected to the OKBOMB investigation
(the FBI's code name for the Oklahoma City bombing). The
teletype discusses a report from an undisclosed individual regarding
Elohim City, a white separatist compound in Vian, OK. Court
records confirm that McVeigh telephoned the complex shortly before the
OKC bombing, and numerous reports have suggested links
between McVeigh and Nichols, Elohim City and the Aryan Republican
Army, a bank robbery gang whose members were white
separatists who stated that the proceeds of their robberies would be
used to fund terrorist attacks on the U.S. government.
On page two
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/2trentadue.html of the
document, an unidentified informant (name redacted) is quoted as
saying that unidentified individuals at Elohim City have explosive
devices which they intend to use on various targets around the U.S.
Meetings on such plans are described, but the names of the
participants have been redacted.
On page three of the document, the writer states that "[redacted
name] also indicated that [redacted name] may have assisted
McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing."
FBI TELETYPE, JANUARY 1996
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/4trentadue.html
* McVeigh phone call to Elohim City, 4/17/1995
* Suspect cited for relationship to McVeigh
* 4/17 call was to seek additional conspirators
This document dealing with BOMBROB, the bank robbery
investigation involving Richard Guthrie, has been significantly
redacted.
However, it states
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/6trentadue.html that
"Information has been received through the Southern Poverty Law
Center that one [name redacted], aka [name redacted], [redacted]
telephone call from Timothy McVeigh, on or about 4/17/1995, two
days prior to the OKBOMB attack, when [name redacted], per a source at
the SPLC, was in the white supremacist compound at
[redacted], OK. [name redacted] allegedly has a lengthy relationship
with Timothy McVeigh, one of the two indicted OKBOMB
defendants. The source of the SPLC advised that [name redacted] is
currently residing with [name redacted] in [redacted], N.C., and
plans to leave the U.S. via Mexico in the near future."
"Prior OKBOMB investigation determined that McVeigh had placed a
telephone call to Elohim City on 4/5/1995, a day that he was
believed to have been attempting to recruit a second conspirator to
assist in the OKBOMB attack (emphasis added by INTELWIRE)."
FBI TELETYPE, AUGUST 1996
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/8trentadue.html
* McVeigh phone calls detailed
* BOMBROB suspects summoned by phone from Phila.
On the second page
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/9trentadue.html
of this teletype from FBI headquarters to the Philadelphia office
of the FBI (involved in the BOMBROB investigation), the following
passage appears:
"Information has been developed that [names redacted] were at
the home of [name redacted] Elohim City, Oklahoma, on 4/5/1995
when OKBOMB subject, Timothy McVeigh, placed a telephone call from
[redacted] residence to [redacted] residence in Philadelphia
division. BOMBOB subjects [names redacted] left [redacted] residence
on 4/16/1995 en route to Pittsburgh (sic), Kansas, where they
joined [name redacted] and Guthrie."
Some of the Aryan Republican Army bank robbery suspects lived in
Philadelphia. The ARA maintained a safe house in Pittsburg,
Kansas.
SUMMARY OF INFORMANT INFORMATION, 1/16/1996
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/13trentadue.html
* SPLC informant information discussed
* McVeigh meeting with unnamed suspect in 1993
As has been reported elsewhere, the Southern Poverty Law Center
(an independent organization that monitors hate group activity
in the U.S.) maintained an informant in Elohim City. The reports of
this informant have become the center of much ensuing controversy
regarding the OKC investigation. This OKBOMB document summarizes
information obtained through this avenue.
The document states: "With regard to [redacted] wherein Timothy
McVeigh met [redacted] being in November 1993, the
information was actually that it was approximately 18 months before
the bombing." The rest of the report appears to represent
speculation on the part of the informant, but certain sections are so
heavily redacted that it is impossible to know for sure.
FBI TELETYPE, 1/11/96
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/17trentadue.html
* Redacted information on suspect links
This OKBOMB case teletype also discusses information obtained
from the SPLC. The document is OKBOMB related and refers
to relationships between individuals whose names have been redacted.
FBI TELETYPE, 1/20/96
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/18trentadue.html
* Heavily redacted
* McVeigh 4/17 call to suspect identified
* Suspect reported to plan flight from country
This heavily redacted OKBOMB document contains extensive
information on individuals whose names have been excised.
According to the teletype , the FBI in Oklahoma "has received
information [redacted name] may be an associate of Timothy McVeigh.
(According to the SPLC informant,) "McVeigh attempted to
telephonically contact [redacted] on or about April 17, 1995, while
[name
redacted] was residing in Elohim City."
Massive portions of the page that follows are redacted but
appear to contain reports from numerous confidential witnesses (CW)
relating to the above claim. On the subsequent page , an informant
reports "[redacted passage] because things were 'too hot out
there.' CW understood that [redacted] was referring to the bombing of
the Oklahoma City federal building."
INFORMANT SUMMARY, 12/21/1995
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/24trentadue.html
* Relationships to McVeigh discussed
* McVeigh 4/17 call again discussed
* Elohim City reaction to McVeigh arrest
Another OKBOMB case document referencing information from the
SPLC informant. According to the document, "In November
1993, [redacted] met Timothy McVeigh [long passage redacted] is
described as a white male, DOB (date of birth) [redacted] POB
(place of birth) [redacted]. He is a [redacted] who [redacted] with
help from [redacted] somewhere in [redacted] and [redacted].
Allegedly, McVeigh and [redacted] became associates because of their
common background in [redacted].
"[redacted] was [redacted] at Elohim City, Oklahoma. On 4/17/95,
McVeigh called Elohim City and spoke with a female who
answered the phone. He asked to speak to [redacted].
"Sources have told [redacted] that [redacted] Elohim City
anywhere from two days before the Oklahoma City bombing to two
weeks before the bombing. [redacted] latest information is that
[redacted] of Elohim City, saw McVeigh being led out of the
courthouse
on television and at that time, [redacted] was told to [redacted]."
Virtually all of the remaining document is redacted, except for
a notation that the information may be valuable to the FBI's legat
(legal attache) in London, who was investigating the background of an
individual whose name has been redacted.
FBI TELETYPE, FBI HQ TO LEGAT BONN, 1/26/1996
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/26trentadue.html
* Andreas Strassmeir likely subject of document
* Documents seized by OK police, contents redacted
Although this document has been heavily redacted, one can
reasonably speculate that it deals with German national Andreas
Strassmeir, an Elohim City resident who has been linked to the BOMBROB
suspects and also to the Oklahoma City investigation.
Strassmeir was the son of a high-ranking German government official,
according to British newspaper The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/mcveigh/story/0,7369,488262,00.html .
Strassmeir reportedly met McVeigh at a gun show in 1993.
The teletype says that [name redacted] may be an associate of
Timothy McVeigh," and reiterates several phrases from the
teletype of 1/20/96
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/18trentadue.html ,
suggesting both documents may primarily concern Strassmeir (who
reportedly fled the country in 1996).
Even more importantly in terms of furthering this investigation,
the teletype states that it provided to the FBI several documents
received from confidential sources regarding Elohim City. "Among these
documents were documents [redacted] relating to [redacted]
Some documents have the heading [redacted]. One document appears to be
a [redacted] dated [redacted]. One document [redacted]
is entitled [redacted]. This document certifies that [redacted]. The
course included instruction in [redacted]."
The remainder of the document is heavily redacted, often
inexplicably so, such as the removal of apparent references to Terry
Nichols and Michael Fortier, known subjects in the investigation whose
identities hardly need to be concealed.
TESTIMONY OF CAROL HOWE, APRIL 24, 1997
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/39trentadue.html
* Informant gave ATF prior warning of attacks
* Evidence of ATF warnings intentionally suppressed
The following sections of court transcripts record a sealed
hearing concerning ATF informant Carol Howe, a resident of Elohim
City
at the time of the bombing. This material was suppressed, apparently
with the explicit purpose of excluding it from consideration in the
trial of Timothy McVeigh.
The transcript indicates that Ms. Howe had previously been an
informant for the ATF and was re-activated after the Oklahoma City
bombing. Ms. Howe's ATF handler was questioned during the hearing. The
explosive portion of the transcript ( click here ) states that
Ms. Howe informed the ATF -- prior to the Oklahoma City bombing --
that Andy Strassmeir had threatened to bomb U.S. federal
buildings, and that Howe accompanied Elohim City residents on a trip
to Oklahoma City of unclear intent.
In the presiding judge's own words, "We have got evidence that
the ATF took a trip with somebody who said that buildings were
going to be blown up in Oklahoma City before it was blown up, or
something of that nature."
FBI FD-302 INFORMANT REPORT ON DAVID HOLLAWAY, 2/25/1997
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/50trentadue.html
* Informant reports OKC suspicions regarding alleged white
supremacist
This report details an informant's conversation with Dave
Hollaway, a Special Forces veteran with alleged ties to white
supremacist
groups. The information in this report is unsubstantiated and should
not be construed as evidence of guilt, but the document is clearly
relevant to the OKBOMB investigation and is included here as such.
According to the document, Hollaway was associated with CAUSE, a
white supremacist foundation and had acted as an
intermediary on occasion between the federal government and militant
white supremacist groups. According to the informant, Hollaway
presented himself as a member of such groups.
The document states that Hollaway claimed to have spoken with
Timothy McVeigh two days before the Oklahoma City bombing.
Hollaway critiqued the placement of the truck bomb used in the attack
and provided details on the construction of such bombs,
according to the document.
FD-302, FBI INTERRGOGATION OF DAVID HOLLAWAY, 8/13/1996
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/52trentadue.html
* FBI inteviews alleged white supremacist about alleged McVeigh
call
In this record of an FBI interview with Hollaway, Hollaway
appears to confirm the general points raised in the preceding
document,
including his affiliation with the CAUSE foundation. Hollaway said he
received a call on April 18, 1995, from an unidentified caller which
had threatening overtones in the context of the following day's
events. He claimed that he informed the FBI of the call via a tip
hotline
on April 20, 1995, and that FBI agents subsequently followed up with
him by phone.
INTELWIRE has removed some personally identifying information
about Hollaway from the original form due to privacy
considerations. Mainstream media outlets seeking more information may
contact INTELWIRE for the unredacted page.
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/okc_bombing_trentadue_files_index.htm
==
In the matter of Kenneth Michael Trentadue (Part 1/5)
J.D. Cash / McCurtain Dailey Gazette | April 7, 2004
Editor's note: Scheduled for Denver, Colo., today, attorneys for the
family of the late Kenneth Michael Trentadue will renew their
long-running campaign for what they see as truth and justice, this
time in front of a federal appeals court, arguing that a loved one
was
tortured and murdered by members of the Department of Justice in
Oklahoma City.
Since the death of Kenneth Trentadue on Aug. 21, 1995, the government
has spent millions on legal expenses, trying to escape
responsibility for the suspicious death of an inmate left in the sole
custody of federal government employees. The family is trying to
collect the $1.1 million a judge awarded them for severe emotional
distress he said was caused by federal officials, but it represents
only a small portion of the damages they may someday receive if the
10th Circuit Court of Appeals orders a new trial in the case.
Recently, Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue asked this newspaper
to review a substantial body of evidence he has collected
concerning his brother's mysterious and gruesome death - a death that
the government claims was a suicide.
Both the death and its aftermath were bizarre. So heavy were the
pressures following Trentadue's strange death that the investigating
Oklahoma medical examiner, terrified of retaliation from the Justice
Department, wrote the IRS, begging the agency to perform a
"protective audit" on him.
The Trentadue family believes a cover-up surrounding their loved one's
death reaches to persons serving at the highest levels of
government in the state of Oklahoma and the federal government at the
time of Kenneth Trentadue's death.
Recently the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Orrin Hatch,
renewed his plea for the government to reveal what it knows
about what happened to Kenneth Trentadue after he was brought to
Oklahoma City in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. Among
the many questions family members are asking is: Did the government
bring Kenneth Trentadue to Oklahoma City and torture him
because federal agents mistakenly thought he was the elusive John Doe
2 - once the subject of a nationwide manhunt after the April
19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma
City?
Oklahoma City was the center of the news universe throughout much of
1995. The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building
focused the world's attention on the state Capitol where journalists
from around the globe filed thousands of stories about the April 19
bloody terrorist attack that took the lives of 168 persons, 19 of them
children.
On August 10, 1995, indictments were handed down in Oklahoma City by a
federal grand jury.
After months of hearing witnesses and examining physical evidence, the
panel found there was sufficient evidence to charge Timothy
McVeigh and Terry Nichols as principals in a conspiracy to bomb the
Murrah federal building with a weapon of mass destruction.
Grand jurors also concluded there were "others unknown" who helped the
pair commit the terrible crime.
Forty-eight hours after the indictments were announced, Nichols and
McVeigh were brought into a packed federal courtroom for
arraignment on multiple counts of murder and conspiracy.
In the stately chamber only a block from where a 7,000-pound bomb
decimated much of downtown Oklahoma City, the two former
army buddies listened with heads bowed as the indictments were read.
Also present, over a hundred reporters scribbling notes -
occasionally looking up for a glimpse at the two most vilified men in
the United States.
The bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City was the most
sensational crime in America since the assassination of President
Kennedy. The spectacle drew scores of the most recognized reporters
and journalists from around the world.
On Aug. 18, only a few miles away from ground zero of the attack, a
prisoner from California was very quietly whisked into Oklahoma
City on a jet aircraft belonging to the Department of Justice. There
were no news camera trucks or reporters there to record this event.
Moments after landing, Kenneth Trentadue and a number of other
prisoners were led in shackles into the U.S. Department of Justice
Bureau of Prisons' new $80 million Federal Transfer Center (FTC)
constructed for short-term confinement of some of the nation's most
dangerous criminals.
Whether the government's star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing
case was also at the transfer center that day is a matter of
speculation.
Michael Fortier had been taken into federal custody on Aug. 7 after
his formal plea agreement was approved and signed by U.S.
Attorney Patrick Ryan and Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy.
Under heavy federal surveillance around the clock, Fortier had been
cooperating for months with the FBI - providing snippets of
information about McVeigh, Nichols, and their activities and
associates.
No evidence has been uncovered yet that Fortier ever mentioned to the
FBI the name of Kenneth Trentadue or his alias, Paul
Brockway - the name Trentadue used back in the days he robbed banks.
However, records obtained by this newspaper do show that FBI agents
during a long series of interviews on June 21 and 22, 1995,
asked Fortier about McVeigh's connections to bank robberies. Fortier
was vague about what he knew about McVeigh's associates and
any bank robbery plot.
McVeigh's sister, Jennifer, though, had already admitted under intense
pressure that she helped launder proceeds from at least one
bank robbery in which her brother participated.
Jennifer McVeigh told the FBI on May 2, 1995, that her brother had
been involved with a bank robbery group made up of like-minded
men. Like Fortier, she divulged no names.
Search for John Doe 2
In the frantic days after the bombing, the FBI issued worldwide alerts
focusing on a second subject present when the truck used to
carry the explosives to the front entrance of the Murrah building was
rented in central Kansas two days before the attack.
By the date of the arraignments of McVeigh and Nichols, though, no
further arrests
had been made by the FBI in the bombing case.
Appearing to step away from other suspects, the bureau seemed to be
making an about-face in the high-profile case, telling the media
that there may have been some confusion about a second subject at the
truck rental. Maybe there wasn't a John Doe 2 after all.
Justice Department officials told the press that the three witnesses
at the truck rental might have been confused when they were
originally interviewed.
The clear impression given by these high-ranking officials was that
the witnesses from Elliott's Body Shop recanted their earlier
statements regarding the presence of someone else with McVeigh when
the truck was rented.
And finding out otherwise was impossible for most reporters, because
the witnesses in Kansas were under intense pressure by the
FBI not to talk to the press. A full-time private security guard had
even been placed at the Junction City, Kan., business to keep the
media away.
As a result of all the secrecy, few outside the top rungs of the FBI
and Justice Department were aware that a number of suspects were
still at large.
However, senior level FBI agents working the case knew that the
witnesses at Elliott's Body Shop never wavered in their belief a
second subject was with McVeigh when the truck was rented.
And the bureau was certain that the man with McVeigh at the truck
rental was not Terry Nichols. Nichols had an ironclad alibi for that
time, placing him many miles away when the truck was rented.
The description
In the wake of the bombing, federal agents distributed a description
of the man who was present when the Ryder truck was in Kansas.
John Doe 2 was variously described to be muscular, with a dark
complexion, 185 pounds, approximately 5-foot-eight to five-foot-10
inches tall, and bearing a tattoo on his left arm. Several reports
stated that he could be driving an older model pickup truck.
According to an employee at Elliott's shop where the Ryder truck was
rented, John Doe 2 had a very unusual tattoo partially visible
beneath his T-shirt.
Mechanic Tom Kessinger told federal agents that it might have been a
tattoo of a serpent or dragon.
Kessinger explained his early dealings with the FBI in a 1996
interview with this reporter.
"I just saw part of a tattoo that I thought could have been the tail
of something below his shirt, John Doe 2's T-shirt. I told the FBI it
may have been the tail of something like a dragon or serpent. I could
only see a part of the tattoo. I was guessing about the part that
was hidden under the shirt I couldn't see."
Regardless of the fact the witnesses at the truck rental were holding
firm, by the time the much-anticipated murder and conspiracy
trials for McVeigh and Nichols began in Denver in 1997, the government
was working overtime trying to dismiss evidence that there
had ever been a John Doe 2, or any other suspects that might muddy
their cases against McVeigh and Nichols.
Also at this time, the Justice Department was under tremendous
pressure to explain one of the most bizarre murders to ever take
place in the federal prison system.
The Trentadue nightmare
According to Jesse Trentadue, his younger brother took a different
route after their parents in 1961 uprooted and moved the family from
the coal mining camps of West Virginia to the land of promise: sunny
southern California.
Jesse Trentadue sought a better life than his coal-mining father had
known. He would find it through a good education.
With an athletic scholarship to pave the way, the older brother
graduated from the University of Southern California and then Jesse
Trentadue went on to study law at the University of Idaho.
Kenneth Trentadue traveled a much different route to his fortunes: He
robbed banks.
In 1982, Kenneth Trentadue was arrested and sent to federal prison
where he served six years for his criminal lifestyle.
At the age of 37, he came out of prison with a new perspective. He set
out to get married, raise a family and take what legitimate jobs
he could find.
"My brother was pretty easy going about life," Jesse told this
newspaper. "His wife Carmen is Hispanic with family and property in
Mexico. Jesse took construction jobs in the states when the family
needed money. Much of the time they spent at Carmen's place in
Mexico or in San Diego."
Still responsible for living up to the terms of his parole agreement,
Kenneth Trentadue had a real problem with his parole officer - the
fellow wouldn't let him drink beer.
"We went through the administrative hearing process trying to get the
beer drinking ban lifted," Jesse Trentadue recalled.
"Kenny was working, married and a good provider. He just wanted to be
able to have a beer. They wouldn't let him. So in 1989, Kenny
just quit reporting to his parole officer and a warrant was issued. No
one came looking for him. And nothing came of it until 1995."
It was just weeks after the Oklahoma City bombing when a border guard
near San Diego stopped Kenneth Trentadue while he was
making one of his regular trips into the country for work. The
arresting officer said he thought Ken Trentadue was drunk.
Days later, on July 10, 1995, U.S. Marshals took Trentadue into
federal custody after locating him at the county jail on the Mexican
border.
Documents obtained by the McCurtain Daily Gazette show that the
arresting officer noted Trentadue's alias of Vance Paul Brockway,
his height, 5 feet, 8 inches; weight, 200 pounds; brown hair; brown
eyes and a dragon tattoo on his left arm - visible all the way to his
elbow.
Adding to the suspicious nature of the situation, Trentadue did not
divulge his wife's name or U.S. address - only providing authorities
his parents' address in Westminster, Calif., as a contact.
When this information was compiled, an unfortunate picture emerged:
Trentadue appeared to be an almost perfect match for the
subject of a worldwide manhunt: John Doe 2.
Making matters even more suspicious, Trentadue was driving a 1986
Chevy pickup very similar to the one the FBI believed John Doe 2
might be traveling in. And possibly sealing his fate, the arresting
officer noted that a check of the national database of criminal
records
turned up four hits for Trentadue, a.k.a Vance Paul Brockway - at
least one was for bank robbery.
Suddenly, after six years of being ignored by the authorities, Kenneth
Trentadue was arrested and flown all the way to Oklahoma City -
supposedly to attend a hearing for violating his parole agreement in
southern California.
His family now wonders if Trentadue might not have really been a
target for interrogation by agents working the OKBOMB case. But
whatever the reason for Trentadue's Aug. trip to Oklahoma City soon
turned to disaster.
On the morning of Aug. 21, the acting warden at the Oklahoma City
Federal Transfer Center, Marie Carter, called Trentadue's mother
to inform her that her son had committed suicide hours earlier.
During this brief conversation, Trentadue family members say the
prison official asked for permission to cremate the body.
Mrs. Trentadue said she would consult the rest of the family,
including the widow.
The acting warden responded, "He's not married?"
Stunned but suspicious, the mother of the deceased told the prison
official, "Yes, he's married and he also has a 2-month-old child
and his brother is a lawyer. We'll get back to you!"
Recently, Jesse Trentadue told this newspaper: "When we look back on
that first conversation with the acting warden, she didn't know
Kenny's real name or anything about him that was accurate. She seemed
to think she knew everything about someone that he wasn't.
Who the hell did she really think he was? Did someone kill him trying
to get him to confess to being involved with the Oklahoma
bombing?
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/kenneth_michael_trentadue_01.htm
In the matter of Kenneth Michael Trentadue (Part 2/5)
J.D. Cash / McCurtain Dailey Gazette | April 7, 2004
When two members of the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's office arrived at
the sparkling new Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center
(FTC) at 7 a.m. on Aug. 21, 1995, what they found in the infirmary was
the body of a man badly bruised, bloody and his throat cut.
Guards and supervisors at the institution were calling it a suicide.
When questioned in more detail by the medical examiner's investigator,
Tammi Gillis, Federal Transfer Center personnel stood by their
story that the subject hanged himself while in isolation. One even
said he thought the inmate had tried to slash his throat first. It was
a
bizarre story even from the beginning.
Adding to the strange nature of the situation, prison officials
refused Gillis access to
the cell where the inmate was supposedly found - a clear violation of
Oklahoma law.
Gillis was told the inmate on the gurney, with his scalp split to the
skull in three places and throat slashed from ear to ear, had used
his bed sheet and a couple of tubes of toothpaste to commit suicide.
Numerous bruises on the inmate's feet, legs, torso, both arms and back
were passed off as self-inflicted, also, by the center staff.
Officials at the prison said they found the inmate hanging from a
grate mounted on the wall in his cell at 3 a.m., during a routine
inspection made by a guard on his regular rounds of the Special
Housing Unit (SHU).
The SHU at the Oklahoma City facility is a high-security unit where
prisoners are kept in solitary confinement, safe from other
inmates.
Inmate records obtained from the institution reflect that the subject
was strip searched before entering the SHU, 17 hours before his
death. At that time, guards only noted a single blister on one of the
inmate's feet and listed no other medical problems.
Inspection denied
After a closer physical examination of the body revealed a myriad of
bruises and serious wounds, Gillis once again demanded an
inspection of the cell for evidence of foul play. The investigator
suspected that the inmate had been subjected to a violent beating.
Federal Transfer Center officials responded that a federal
investigation was taking place and any investigation by the medical
examiner's office would have to be put on hold.
Voluminous evidence would later surface, however, that proved the
staff at the center were not investigating anything at the time of
the
incident.
No meaningful outside investigation was done that day by any federal
or state agency. The staff at the center, however, tried to turn
away outside investigators at the same time the scene of Trentadue's
death was undergoing changes.
Records later would show that even before Gillis arrived to
investigate the inmate's death, an Oklahoma City police officer was
also
turned away when he arrived to investigate why an ambulance was
initially called to resuscitate a suicide victim.
Like Gillis, the police were told federal officials would take care of
their own investigation. Later, investigators would discover that the
ambulance team had been turned away at the gates.
Denied unfettered access to the inside of the cell, Gillis was only
offered a brief look through the window on the door of the A709.
After a quick peek, the state investigator and her assistant left with
Trentadue's body.
Records obtained by this newspaper indicate the pair were only on
federal property 20 minutes that morning.
Trentadue held under
an alias at center
Documents obtained by the McCurtain Daily Gazette reveal a most
unusual fact: Kenneth Trentadue was not listed at the Oklahoma
City Federal Transfer Center by his real name. Instead, the inmate was
listed as Paul Vance Brockway - an alias Trentadue used
many years earlier.
And there would be more mysteries to emerge from the Oklahoma City
Federal Transfer Center as Trentadue's death came under
scrutiny.
According to Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue, his mother
received notification of his brother's death on the morning of Aug.
21
from Marie Carter, acting warden at the Oklahoma City facility.
"After they told my mother that Kenny had killed himself, they said
they wanted to cremate the body and send the ashes to us. My
mother refused," Trentadue told this newspaper.
"I knew this was all bull---! Kenny had been on the phone with us a
day or so earlier and was fine. He had no reason to kill himself. He
hadn't committed a serious crime. He had been working, taking care of
his family. He messed up with his parole officer, but was not
robbing banks. Kenny was just going to appear before a hearing on a
minor parole violation. He had a new baby and a wife to come
back home to. If he had to serve a few weeks on the parole violation,
no big deal."
Deep suspicions
The Trentadue family was not the only group to find the government's
suicide story hard to believe.
highly skeptical.
The day following Trentadue's death, an Oklahoma City FBI agent
received a murder complaint from Kevin Rowland, the medical
examiner's lead investigator.
Once the medical examiner's office completed the Trentadue autopsy,
they found the suicide claim very unlikely.
According to former FBI special agent Jeff Jenkins, Rowland told him
in a telephone call that the inmate's wounds were inconsistent
with a suicide and were likely the result of a murder.
In a Dec. 6, 1995, internal FBI memo marked NOT APPROPRIATE FOR
DISSEMINATION TO THE PUBLIC, special agent Jenkins
advised his superiors that the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's official
findings would, "...likely rule that Trentadue's death was a
homicide."
The memo went on to advise the Asst. Special Agent in Charge of the
Oklahoma City FBI office that efforts were being made by
Federal Transfer Center personnel to avoid polygraph examinations
concerning the inmate's death.
"SA Jenkins stated that the new warden at the FTC will not allow any
of the guards/officials to take polygraph examinations. The
prison guards are represented by a strong union which will probably
also object to their members taking a polygraph."
Destroying evidence?
Material obtained by this newspaper reveals that destruction of
potential evidence by guards and officials at the FTC in Oklahoma
City
began in earnest on Aug. 21, 1995 - moments after Kenneth Trentadue
took his last breath.
As soon as the medical examiner's investigator left with Trentadue's
body, a team of guards and inmates began cleaning all the blood
from the cell, before the local FBI or Bureau of Prisons special
investigators flying in from Texas could conduct outside
investigations
as required by law.
In a sealed report of the investigation obtained by this newspaper,
the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of
Justice determined that staff members at the Oklahoma City Federal
Transfer Center immediately destroyed crime scene evidence
and several months later lied about what they had done to federal
investigators and grand jurors.
The man responsible for securing Trentadue's cell, Lt. Kenneth W.
Freeman, was charged under law with notifying the FBI of the
inmate's suspicious death so agents could investigate the scene.
Freeman was the special investigative supervisor responsible for
conducting the initial investigation of Trentadue's death.
The Office of Inspector General found that Freeman did not immediately
contact the FBI as the law required.
Instead, the OIG determined that center officials set about the
process of cleaning the cell after learning that a special team of
Bureau
of Prisons investigators were winging their way to Oklahoma City for
an internal investigation and could arrive at any moment.
Dated November 1999, the OIG report states:
"Later that morning (Aug. 21, 1995), Associate Warden Flowers decided
that Trentadue's cell should be cleaned. Flowers told the OIG
that when he asked Freeman during the morning of Aug. 21 if the FBI
had been notified, Freeman told him the FBI had been notified
and had instructed Freeman to send in a report about the incident. In
addition, Flowers said that he had been informed by the FTC
medical staff that Trentadue's blood count indicated a high
probability that he was HIV-positive. (In fact, he was not HIV-
positive.)
Flowers said he thought the cell should be cleaned promptly because of
the potentially infectious blood. ... Flowers said he therefore
instructed the FTC health unit to clean the cell.
"Although the center staff had been told by the medical examiner's
office that the condition of the body required them to immediately
report the incident to the FBI and be careful to treat the cell as a
crime scene and not disturb anything, the OIG report notes that
statements made by the center's special investigative supervisor, Lt.
Freeman, were not truthful about how he handled the situation.
However, contrary to Freeman's representations, he still had not
spoken to the FBI when he told Flowers he had. SA Jenkins stated
that Freeman did not speak with him until approximately 11:30 a.m.
Although Freeman falsely represented to the BOP and other
investigators about when he first spoke with Jenkins, Freeman
eventually admitted to the OIG that he had tried to contact Jenkins
early in the morning on Aug. 21, but he did not provide full details
about Trentadue's death. Although their recollections of the
conversation of Aug. 21 differed, Freeman said he told Jenkins that
FTC correction officers had found Trentadue hanging in a secure
cell, that Trentadue had committed suicide by hanging himself, and
that there was a little bit of blood. Jenkins said that Freeman did
not mention any blood and did not describe the extent of Trentadue's
injuries. ... At approximately 1 p.m., FTC medical staff and
inmates cleaned Trentadue's cell."
The OIG investigation record is replete with details that while staff
at the center mopped up blood from the floor and wiped away
bloodstains from walls and furniture, others removed the bed sheet
that Trentadue was supposed to have used to hang himself.
Also, most of the inmate's clothing would disappear that day. And
prior to the rush to clean the cell, some photographs and a
videotape were made of the scene and victim. Much of this evidence
would also disappear - some for years, some forever.
At 2 p.m., the Bureau of Prison's Psychological Reconstruction Team
landed in Oklahoma City to conduct an investigation that is
required under BOP rules of every suspected inmate suicide case.
But once on Federal Transfer Center grounds, investigators would be
shocked to discover the cell had been meticulously cleaned and
what little evidence remained in the cell had been rearranged by the
staff. The next day the team would leave Oklahoma City, unable to
conduct a meaningful investigation.
The OIG report notes that transfer center officials had been aware
since 8 a.m. that this special unit would be arriving that day.
Subsequent state and federal investigations concluded that by the time
the team of Bureau of Prisons investigators walked into the
facility, crucial evidence that might implicate others had been
removed or washed away.
While the methodical destruction of the crime scene evidence was going
forward, the Federal Transfer Center's psychologist, David
Wedeking, had a meeting with his superiors.
After the meeting, Wedeking prepared a suicide watch report stating
that Trentadue had been placed on a suicide watch shortly before
his death. It was a lie.
While under oath, later, Wedeking admitted the report was false and
that inmate Kenneth Trentadue was never under a suicide watch.
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/kenneth_michael_trentadue_02.htm
In the matter of Kenneth Michael Trentadue (Part 3/5)
J.D. Cash / McCurtain Dailey Gazette | April 7, 2004
Shortly after the bloody body of the inmate was discovered hanging
from a bed sheet in a solitary confinement cell at the Oklahoma
City Federal Transfer Center (FTC), over a thousand miles away an
unsuspecting family received the shocking news that a loved one
had committed suicide.
The dead man's brother, lawyer Jesse Trentadue, recalled the events
for this newspaper.
"Acting Warden Marie Carter called my mother, Wilma Trentadue, at
about 7 a.m. West Coast time on Aug. 21, 1995, and said my
brother had committed suicide. She tried to get my mother to agree to
cremate the body and even offered to pay for the cremation.
"We now know that BOP (Bureau of Prisons) regulations do not allow for
cremation. My mother told Carter that funeral arrangements
would be the decision of Kenney's wife, Carmen. When Carter heard that
she went ballistic, telling my mother that Kenney did not
have a wife, my mother told Carter he did and that I would be
contacting Carter to deal with funeral arrangements and that I was a
lawyer.
"Carter lost it again, telling my mother that Kenney did not have a
brother. My mother said yes, he did. He had two brothers and a
sister."
"About 8 a.m. on the 21st, Trentadue continued: "My mother calls and
tells me about Kenney's death. I was stunned. I had just
spoken with him the evening of the 19th and nothing was unusual. I was
immediately suspicious. So, too, was everyone in our family. I
contacted Carmen to tell her about Kenney's death, but first called
Carmen's sisters so they would be there when the bad news
arrived. Kenney's son was about 2 months old at the time.
"Later that morning, I called Carter, who seemed very defensive. I
kept asking for an autopsy and she refused, saying that my mother
would have to ask for one in writing. I explained to Carter that I was
a lawyer and represented my family and that we wanted an
autopsy. She still refused. I had to prepare written authorizations
for an autopsy, have my mother sign them and send them to Carter."
What the Trentadue family and possibly even the acting warden at the
Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center didn't know was at that
moment an autopsy was already under way.
"We did not know that an autopsy was being done as Carter and I
spoke," Jesse Trentadue commented. "I don't believe she knew
either until later that day. After I told Carter we wanted my brother
sent home, not cremated, I subsequently learned that Carter called
the medical examiner's office to ask what she needed to do to have the
body cremated.
The medical examiner's investigator, Kevin Rowland, told Carter she
would need our consent. It was then Carter learned of the autopsy
and sent over a request to the medical examiner to do an autopsy that
had already been done. All Carter or anyone would say was
that he had killed himself."
When the medical examiner's report of investigation was eventually
released, Dr. Fred B. Jordan listed more than two-dozen injuries to
the body of Kenneth Trentadue. Literally from his feet to the top of
his head, Trentadue received a large number of bruises and
lacerations before he took his last breath, experts said.
What the experts don't agree on is who was responsible for the
remarkable condition of the inmate's body.
The Trentadue family and their experts say their loved one was
tortured and killed by the government.
The government takes the position the inmate spent a considerable
amount of time and energy trying to kill himself that night in the
cell.
Both theories are bizarre and both sides have spent huge sums trying
to establish the more convincing case.
During the autopsy examination, Dr. Jordan photographed three large
wounds to Trentadue's skull, injuries consistent with blows from
a blunt instrument.
Also, Jordon noted that Trentadue's throat had been slashed. All this
the staff at the center claimed the 44-year-old parole violator
accomplished before he supposedly hanged himself.
For nearly three years after this autopsy, the Oklahoma chief medical
examiner refused to issue a final determination on a cause of
death for Kenneth Trentadue. Instead, Dr. Jordan's initial finding was
death by asphyxiation, "cause unknown."
As a result of his reluctance to agree with prison officials that the
case was suicide and therefore close the investigation, as well as
the Trentadue family's belief that their loved one was murdered, years
of investigations have followed and millions of dollars expended
trying to determine, or some would say cover up, what really happened
that night in cell 709A at the FTC in Oklahoma City.
Federal refusal to cooperate
Within 24 hours of receiving the bloody and battered body for autopsy,
an assistant medical examiner called the Oklahoma City FBI
office and reported that Trentadue's injuries were consistent with a
beating and murder - certainly not a suicide. The medical
examiner's office also advised the FBI to treat Trentadue's death as a
homicide.
Special agent Jeff Jenkins recorded this exchange in an FBI report
obtained by the McCurtain Daily Gazette.
"A subsequent autopsy by the State Medical Examiner in Oklahoma City
revealed that (Trentadue) had been severely beaten prior to
death by asphyxiation."
However, the FBI was not talking to the family at this time and the
report was not available in the days following Trentadue's death.
Certainly the Bureau of Prisons had not disclosed the extent of the
inmate's injuries or any other information to the family regarding
Trentadue's final days in federal custody.
While officials declined to speak on the record, the body was sent
from the medical examiner's office over to a funeral home to be
prepared for viewing and burial. It would take a lot of makeup to make
the body presentable for the family.
Jesse Trentadue recalled the shipment of his brother home: "The body
did not arrive in Orange County until the next Saturday. I had to
repeatedly call the FTC to inquire about having the body shipped home.
It took almost a week and many heated conversations with the
FTC administration. They did not want to release him and I now know
why.
"I was in Utah preparing to travel to California when his body
arrived. My mother, sister and Kenney's wife went immediately to the
funeral home and took a camera.
"The body was heavily made up so that all of the injuries were
concealed except for his slashed throat. No makeup was placed on that
wound; in fact, the collar on his shirt was deliberately turned down
so that the wound was obvious. I suspect they wanted us to think
that was a rope burn."
He explained that the women took the most important step in the
family's early investigation. "My mother, sister and Carmen had
Kenney's clothes removed and took a few photographs. They took the
camera with them because we knew that if Kenney were
murdered, he would go down fighting. When I arrived, we spent the
better part of a morning photographing and videotaping Kenney's
body. It turned out that we have the only photographs of many of his
injuries."
The Trentadues contacted the Oklahoma chief medical examiner in
person. Jesse Trentadue explained the revelations that emerged
from this initial meeting.
"Jordan repeatedly told us this was a murder, but because the crime
scene had been destroyed, he had to list the manner of death as
unknown. He also looked my mother, Carmen and sister in the eye and
told them he would never go back on them."
Bitter after years of disappointments, Jesse Trentadue recalls now,
that, "In the weeks following Kenney's murder, I went to Dallas,
Texas, to speak with the BOP's regional counsel Michael Hood. Hood
told me the BOP investigation was over, but would not tell me
the conclusion.
"Hood also suggested that we had done the injuries to Kenney's body.
Hood made one comment that I will always remember. He said,
'The BOP, FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office - we're one big ole' Justice
Department.'"
Trentadue explained his frustrations further: "But when I would ask
for information, I was repeatedly told to file a Freedom of
Information
Act Request. No one within the government would talk to us. In fact,
on Sept. 1, 1995, the BOP issued a press release saying that
Kenney's death had tentatively been ruled suicide and that all of his
wounds were self-inflicted. That press release occurred after my
brother's body arrived home and after we had discovered the trauma."
The BOP's declaration of suicide had no legal effect. It was designed
for the media. The person with the authority of determine the
legal cause of death was with the Oklahoma medical examiner's office
and Dr. Jordan was still uncommitted.
Jesse Trentadue said the next step was to lobby senior members of the
Department of Justice.
"By early October, I had gone up the DOJ food chain to Janet Reno,
because by early October, I knew the BOP was lying to me, but I
did not suspect the FBI until later."
It would be more than two years before Trentadue would learn that the
FBI had not even inspected the death scene in a timely manner
after receiving the medical examiner's opinion that Kenneth
Trentadue's case should be worked as a homicide.
Instead, more damning information concerning the government's
questionable investigation of his brother's mysterious death would be
investigated and confirmed by Justice Department officials, but no one
would lose his job or be sent to prison as a result.
One sickening thing to the Trentadue family is the Office of Inspector
General's findings that Federal Transfer Center staff admitted
lying about important facts in the investigation. Beyond committing
perjury, some staff members admitted destroying evidence in the
case.
But most upsetting to the family are admissions from the staff that
key medical personnel were not allowed to administer first aid to
Trentadue during the first minutes after the inmate's body was found
hanging in his cell.
Jesse Trentadue calls the whole thing a murder and sloppy cover-up
that no one has paid for.
"My brother didn't have a reason to kill himself. Someone else did it.
We want to know who and why!"
The Ricks investigation
Oklahoma City FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Bob Ricks assigned the
gruesome homicide investigation to an agent known to complain
he couldn't bear to look at pictures of dead people.
In spite of the problem, Special Agent Jeff Jenkins was handed the
case by a man only days from leaving the bureau.
Ricks had been ordered out of the FBI by director Louis Freeh only
days after the Oklahoma City bombing.
Ricks now admits he stopped a raid that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms had planned on a group of radicals at Elohim
City, which Timothy McVeigh had contacted only a few days before the
bomb blast in Oklahoma City left 168 dead, including 19
children.
Like Ricks, Jenkins' days at the bureau were numbered. Evidence
suggests Jenkins' ouster was not linked to the bombing of the OKC
federal building but problems with his handling of the Trentadue
matter.
Instead of getting in his car and immediately going across town to the
Federal Transfer Center to begin the crucial process of
conducting interviews and collecting evidence while the scene was
fresh, Jenkins stayed in his Oklahoma City office that afternoon
and then went home to enjoy the next day off as paid leave.
While the official case agent lolled, inmates were transferred from
the Oklahoma City prison, and the cell where Trentadue is believed
to have died was scrubbed clean.
When Jenkins did finally manage to make it to the facility on the 24th
- a full three days after the death was reported - the agent failed
to conduct a single interview with an inmate, nor did he bother to
visit the cell where the body was reported to have been cut down.
Instead, Jenkins spent the first day at the facility with the acting
warden and two members of her staff. What evidence Jenkins
collected that day he later admitted was either placed under his desk
or left in his car trunk.
A subsequent investigation by the Office of Inspector General for the
Justice Department concluded that pieces of blood-soaked
evidence that might have yielded DNA evidence linking other persons to
the scene putrefied in the agent's car truck in the stifling hot
August Oklahoma weather.
By the time the evidence was turned over, it was impossible for the
FBI lab to examine for clues of other suspects.
The FBI said nothing of this to the family. Evidence of the
extraordinary amount of missing and destroyed evidence in the case
would
keep FBI and BOP officials busy explaining for years to come.
In the meantime, the Trentadue investigation languished.
However, brother Jesse refused to wait. The lawyer began a national
campaign for justice, lobbying hard for answers - coast to coast.
"I had to beg to get the FBI to send anyone to our home to interview
us about Kenney. Finally I flew to Oklahoma and took the pictures
of Kenney we took after the body arrived in Utah. I knew we were in a
lot of trouble when Jenkins said he couldn't look at those
pictures, because he might get sick."
Jordan frustrated, too
Eventually the Oklahoma medical examiner became enraged over the FBI's
lack of interest in the case, too. Like Jesse Trentadue, Dr.
Jordan decided to make some phone calls. He took his complaints to the
Justice Department, just as Trentadue had been doing.
Sensing the pressure, the case agent on the investigation, Jeff
Jenkins, wrote that he believed the medical examiner would eventually
conclude that Trentadue was murdered.
Jenkins notes' include references to the building media interest in
case. His handwritten notes obtained by this newspaper describe
Jordan to his superiors as: "A loose cannon." And in those same notes,
Jenkins warns:
"CBS been to ME's office earlier today. Talked to OC media rep and
gave standard no comment on pending investigation. Things at
the prison seem to have gotten a little more tense."
Certainly the FBI had plenty of reason to worry about the media and
Jordan.
On Dec. 20, 1995, Dr. Jordan placed in his file a memo obtained by
this newspaper listing efforts he was making to urge the FBI and
Bureau of Prisons to do a proper investigation into Trentadue's death.
In that memo, Jordan records that he placed a call to Eric Holder, a
top official in Janet Reno's Justice Department in Washington,
D.C.
After failing to make contact with Holder, Jordan notes that he turned
next to Asst. U.S. Attorney Arlene Joplin in Oklahoma City.
"I advised her that I felt the Trentadue problem was a very serious
issue that needed full support of the investigative services of the
FBI.
I believe I further informed her that last week in frustration I
indicated to Agent Hunt of the FBI that it could not help but occur to
me
that perhaps the FBI and the BOP were not expediting this
investigation as quickly as we hoped would occur. I told her I thought
there
was a very serious problem at the prison. And about that time, Mr.
Ryan (U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma) got on
the line. I indicated that I felt Mr. Trentadue had been abused and
tortured and at this point was not sure whether his death could be
explained as a suicide or whether it should be regarded as a
homicide."
The memo concludes with Jordan's comments that Ryan thanked him for
the information and gave him his pager number.
Festering with rage, Jesse Trentadue felt the local FBI had no
intention of conducting a real investigation, either. The Salt Lake
City
attorney began a letter-writing and information campaign of his own,
sometimes even plastering gory pictures of his bloodied brother at
bus stops and posting them on the Internet.
In a letter accusing the BOP of murder, Trentadue wrote: "I will
always be grateful to my brother for his love of life, great heart
and
strength. Had my brother been less of a man, your guards would have
been able to kill him without inflicting so much injury to his
body. Had that occurred, Kenney's family would forever have been guilt-
ridden over his death. Each of us would have lived with the pain
of thinking that Kenneth took his own life and that we had somehow
failed him. By making the fight he did for his life, Ken has saved
us that pain and God bless for having done so!"
After years to reflect on his ordeals and his loss, Trentadue told
this newspaper: "The only other thing I remember saying during those
early days was in response to a question: Why should people get upset
over the death of a parole violator?
"My response: Because the Department of Justice did this and that
should scare the hell out of every American. I believe that now
more than ever!"
In the next installment: The pace of state and federal government
investigations pick up only after the Trentadue family and the media
begin asking questions. At this same time, pressure is brought by
local and federal law enforcement officers on the state medical
examiner to change his opinion of Trentadue's death from "unknown" to
"suicide."
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/kenneth_michael_trentadue_03.htm
In the matter of Kenneth Michael Trentadue (Part 4/5)
J.D. Cash / McCurtain Dailey Gazette | April 7, 2004
http://www.mccurtain.com/articles/2004/04/07/okc_bombing/okc10.text.txt
Oklahoma's Chief Medical Examiner Fred Jordan, M.D., was a very
worried and nervous man for years after he autopsied the remains
of Kenneth Michael Trentadue.
In Jordan's long career as the state's medical examiner, his record
had been a good one - marked with accolades for his abilities in
solving many difficult cases. Indeed, Jordan was deeply respected by
his peers and the law enforcement community. Even most
criminal defense lawyers practicing in Oklahoma believed Jordan and
his staff labored hard and their work was unbiased.
The year of 1995, though, tested Jordan and his staff as few medical
examiners' offices around the world had ever been tested.
On April 19, Jordan's office arrived at the bombed-out remains of the
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building to begin the process of
establishing positive identifications for 168 bodies, several mangled
beyond easy recognition after a 7,000-pound truck bomb was set
off in front of the nine-story structure.
Shortly after that gruesome task was accomplished the bloody and
heavily bruised body of 44-year-old Kenneth Trentadue arrived from
the new Federal Transfer Center where the inmate had been held on a
parole violation for only three days.
Prison officials surmised the inmate had committed suicide by hanging,
after beating himself repeatedly and cutting his throat.
After carefully examining the body, Jordan was convinced it was
murder. And since the prison admitted Trentadue was being held in
isolation, away from other prisoners, that turned the spotlight
directly on federal workers.
Cover-up began immediately
At the very beginning of his department's investigation into the
August 21, 1995 brutal death, the FBI and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
refused to cooperate. An investigation by the Department of Justice
Inspector General would later report outrageous examples of
perjury and mishandling of evidence in the case.
Officials at the Oklahoma City Transfer facility initially barred
Jordan's investigators from the cell after the body of Kenneth
Trentadue
had been found. And the FBI later admitted their agents misplaced or
destroyed critical crime scene evidence they received in their
own investigation.
Jesse Trentadue summarized his experiences with federal agencies
working on the case this way: "The government accused everyone
of wrongdoing. They even accused us of having mutilated my brother's
body and said that Kenney killed himself because he had AIDS.
(Jordan proved he did not)
"The government was especially concerned about the Medical Examiner's
Office because of all the evidence we were providing to Dr.
Jordan and his Chief Investigator Kevin Rowland. In fact, we were the
source of most of the evidence the Medical Examiner's Office
received since they were getting nothing from the government, not even
cooperation.
"The government infiltrated and/or controlled every "investigation"
into Kenney's death. And if it could not do that, the government
interfered with those investigations by destroying or withholding
evidence. I now see that from the minute Kenney drew his last breath,
the government reacted like some wounded animal using all of its
strength, powers and resources to protect itself."
Jordan under pressure
Echoing many of Jesse Trentadues conclusions, during a rare interview
for Fox News on July 3, 1997, Dr. Jordan bared many of his
own concerns as he publicly called for a county grand jury
investigation into the bizarre death of Kenneth Trentadue. The
remarkable
exchange opens with Jordan pointing the finger at the federal
government as the culprit in the murder and cover-up.
"I think it's very likely he (Kenneth Trentadue) was murdered. I'm not
able to prove it. I have temporarily classified the death as
undetermined. You see a body covered with blood, removed from the room
as Mr. Trentadue was, soaked in blood covered with
bruises, and you try to gain access to the scene and the government of
the United State says no, you can't.
"They continue to prohibit us from having access to the scene of his
death, which is unheard of in 1997, until about five months later.
When we went in there and luminalled, it lit up like a candle because
blood was still present on the walls of the room after four or five
months. But at that point we have no crime scene, so there are still
questions about the death of Kenneth Trentadue that will never be
answered because of the actions of the U.S. government.
"Whether those actions were intentional - whether they were
incompetence, I don't know - it's not easy to communicate with the
federal government. It was botched. Or worse, it was planned."
The huge problem created for Jordan and his staff was the government
cleaned up the cell where they said Trentadue killed himself.
Adding to suspicions, the medical examiner's office was kept away from
the cell for five months.
During this time, Jordan would later learn that a huge volume of
evidence in the case disappeared and some was destroyed. Key
witnesses interviewed by authorities would subsequently admit they
initially lied to federal investigators and grand jurors, as well.
The victim's brother, Jesse Trentadue, told this newspaper, "At first
we pinned so much hope on Dr. Jordan. He seemed sincere to us.
He knew Kenny did not kill himself, but had been killed. He promised
our family he would never give up on this case until he found the
truth. He also promised he wouldn't buckle under all the pressure he
was being hit with by the FBI.
"The government desperately needed Jordan to rule the case a suicide
so they could stop a grand jury and other federal investigations
from going forward. Jordan was the key they needed to close the case
and he wouldn't."
In notes obtained by this newspaper, an FBI agent reported the medical
examiner's original stalwart position that Dr. Jordan was: "A
loose cannon." And furthermore, the FBI agent noted, "The medical
examiner's findings will probably rule that the death was a
homicide."
Growing nervous by FBI agents repeated attempts to pressure him to
rule the case a suicide, Jordan began contacting officials he
believed would help him.
After the United State's Attorney General, Janet Reno, refused his
phone calls, Jordan was successful in getting the attention of U.S.
Attorney Patrick Ryan in Oklahoma City, after he told one of Ryan's
assistants that Trentadue was probably killed by persons
employed by the federal government.
During the exchange, Ryan says he will pursue the case and take
Jordan's evidence before a federal grand jury.
Despite these assurances, the FBI continued to pressure the Oklahoma
medical examiner to declare the inmate's death a suicide.
Desperate for protection from government retribution, Jordan began
contacting other officials about his fears.
An example of Jordan's concerns are reflected in a letter to the
Commissioner of the IRS, Margaret Milner Richardson.
Dated Aug. 25, 1997, the letter said: "The requirements of my job as
Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Oklahoma are frequently
currently bringing me into an uncomfortable juxtaposition with the
United States Department of Justice.
"In order to protect myself from retribution I would like information
as to how to request a protective audit from your agency. By this, I
simply mean a standard audit in order to avoid having your agency used
to harass me as I proceed with my inquiries into a death that
directly relates to the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City."
As the FBI continued to pressure Jordan in 1997, the medical examiner
also sought political protection from various elected officials.
Jordan fights back
In a handwritten memo obtained by the McCurtain Daily Gazette, Jordan
records the highpoints of a telephone call he made to North
Dakota's United States Senator Byron L. Dorgan.
Explaining his difficult situation, the ME noted that he told the
senator that the Trentadue investigation had been "... crippled by
the
federal government and that Kenneth Trentadue was at the least beaten
before he died." Jordan added: "Reiterated my lack of trust in
the federal government; things inside the D.C. beltway; and the Dept
of Justice in particular."
With the Department of Justice at this time mired in a civil suit with
the Trentadue family, lawyers in the civil division of the Justice
Department appeared to be using the FBI to pressure the medical
examiner into changing his ruling.
Also casting long shadows over the matter, several important senators
had begun asking questions and threatening Janet Reno with a
full Senate Judiciary Committee investigation to get to the bottom of
the case - if she couldn't do it herself.
The Trentadue case was catching national headlines and creating havoc
for DOJ officials.
Members of Reno's staff knew if Jordan would change his mind and rule
the death a suicide, then the mounting pressure for hearings
on Capitol Hill and the flood of news coverage about the terrible
situation would likely go away.
Responding to the mounting pressure, Dr. Jordan continued to complain
bitterly about his treatment. He went to the Oklahoma
Attorney General with his problems. Soon afterward a letter was sent
to the civil division of the Justice Department.
On March 12, 1998, Assistant Attorney General Patrick Crawley attacked
the Justice Department attacks on Jordan and his staff.
Crawley opens the letter commenting that he presumes the DOJ lawyer
also represents the FBI and the BOP.
Next Crawley launches into a vigorous assault on the US Justice
Department's handling of the Trentadue investigation.
In a sort of "Alice through the Looking Glass" set of circumstances,
truth has been obfuscated by the agendas of various federal
agencies (mostly your clients). Particularly in the initial, and most
critical, stage of the investigation when your clients (BOP and FBI)
muddled and meddled their way into the investigative operation. In the
process, your clients prevented the medical examiner from
conducting a thorough and complete investigation into the death,
destroyed evidence, and otherwise harassed and harangued Dr.
Jordan and his staff. The absurdity of this situation is that your
clients outwardly represent law enforcement or least some arm of
licit
government.
Nevertheless, even though the chances of ever establishing what really
happened in this case have essentially vanished, the medical
examiner will still look at any evidence that may be for the coming in
an attempt to uncover the real truth in the death of Kenneth
Trentadue. Whether the truth of the matter is that Kenneth Trentadue
severely beat and bruised himself, slashed his own throat, and
ultimately hung himself, which may displease the Trentadue family, or
that he was beaten and killed by others, which may displease
you and your clients, matters not to the medical examiner. The only
item of interest in the medical examiner's investigation is the truth
about what happened. It is, in the end, the task of the medical
examiner to establish the cause and manner of his death.
The real tragedy in this case appears to be the perversion of law
through chicanery and the misuse of public trust under the guise of
some aberrant for of federalism. In a succession of either illegal,
negligent, or just plain stupid acts, your clients succeeded in
derailing
the medical examiner's investigation and, thereby, may have obstructed
justice in this case. As more and more information is revealed
in this case, primarily through the efforts of Jesse Trentadue, it
appears that your clients, and perhaps others within the Department
of
Justice, have been abusing the powers of their respective offices. If
this is true, all Americans should be very frightened of your clients
and the DOJ. Undaunted, when you come into possession of the least
little tidbit of misinformation you immediately conclude that my
client, who has always acted honorably, has suddenly abandoned his
principles to improperly torpedo your group.
Summarizing the government's alleged interference in the ME's work,
the letter concludes: "The investigation into the death of Kenneth
Trentadue remains open. If it appears that the medical examiner is not
particularly fond of your clients and is openly distrustful of them
and the DOF, it is not any more curious than a similar posture taken
towards other criminal defendants who appear to have some
liability in a case under investigation and seek to intervene or
otherwise control the medical examiners' investigation. I will remind
you
that, to date, any and all evidence of wrongdoing points only to your
client or clients. This is true regardless of how Kenneth Trentadue
was killed. On the primary distinguishing features o this
investigation has been the power of possible suspects to interfere
with the
inquiry under color of law. Naturally we view any participation by
suspects in an investigation with no small amount of alarm and
distrust."
Clearly the medical examiner's office was holding firm at this time.
At least when Jesse Trentadue read the letter copied to his law
office he felt satisfied that he had at least one stalwart friend
fighting with him for truth and justice in the matter of his brother's
revolting
and mysterious death.
Then, suddenly Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy's office
entered the picture.
Macy and his staff came to the case on the guise they would conduct an
independent investigation into the death of Kenneth
Trentadue at the Federal Transfer Center.
The Patrick Ryan, the U.S. attorney charged with prosecuting the
OKBOMB case stepped encouraged Macy's intervention. The stated
rationale was that everyone seemed to have lost confidence in the
FBI's and BOP's handling of the matter.
In very little time after Macy's staff entered the case and began
visiting with the medical examiner, Dr. Jordan suddenly changed
Trentadue's cause of death from unknown to suicide.
Shocked by the sudden turnaround, Jesse Trentadue immediately began
researching who was behind getting Jordan to change his
findings to suicide. Trentadue was told the man was a former Oklahoma
City police detective named Tom Bevel.
Retained by District Attorney Bob Macy and assisted by Richard
Wintory, a prosecutor working in Macy's office, Tom Bevel was a
very well known local crime scene reconstruction expert.
Trentadue explained Bevels unusual relationship to the various parties
involved in the wide-ranging investigations and a wrongful death
civil suit, "The expert witness hired to help defend the government
against my family's civil suit, Tom Bevel was also being paid by the
government to help write the OIG's report of its official
investigation into the circumstances of my brother's death.
"More incredible still, Bevel was being paid by the government at the
same time he was part of the Macy/Wintory investigation!"
Thus, all the investigations were linked through one individual. A
crime scene investigator brought in by Bob Macy.
Tom Bevel would not only be charged with investigating the FBI, but he
also was working for the Justice Department's Inspector
General charged with investigating the FBI and Department of Justice's
handling of the case. Additionally Mr. Bevel was collecting
money from the Department of Justice to help them defend themselves
against the Trentadue's family's wrongful death civil suit.
Jesse Trentadue is bitter about what his family has experienced: "The
sick thing about the entire situation was the epidemic of
government corruption we dug up. Perjury, subornation of perjury,
threats to witnesses, destruction of evidence, fabrication of
evidence
and a _ _ _ _ pile of other acts of obstruction of justice! The
government obtained an order preventing me from reporting those
crimes
to either federal prosecutors or the Senate Judiciary Committee while
at the same time it was trying to indict me and my attorneys
with the perjured testimony of a secret FBI informant. Every
investigation was a sham."
And there would be much more evidence Trentadue would discover in his
quest for justice. Evidence that he feels reveals one of the
most carefully contrived cover-ups involving the Department of Justice
in modern history.
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/kenneth_michael_trentadue_04.htm
In the matter of Kenneth Michael Trentadue (Part 5/5)
J.D. Cash / McCurtain Dailey Gazette | April 7, 2004
Oklahoma's chief medical examiner, issued a final amendment to his
autopsy report on Kenneth Michael Trentadue, an inmate whose
bloody and heavily bruised body had been found in a cell at Oklahoma
City's Federal Transfer Center in August of 1995.
The medical examiner's surprising report would dramatically affect
several ongoing criminal investigations and a multi-million dollar
civil
lawsuit brought by the inmate's family against the government.
Suddenly, after nearly three years of publicly stating doubts that
Trentadue had killed himself at the federal facility, Jordan reversed
that position and found that the inmate had indeed committed suicide
after all.
Many wonder today if someone was finally able to successfully pressure
Jordan to ignore evidence of the inmate's torture and murder
in order to arrive at the conclusion that Trentadue had killed
himself.
Trentadue's mysterious death occurred shortly after his arrest on the
Mexican border, south of San Diego, Ca. - only a few weeks
following the Oklahoma City bombing.
According to the arrest report, a border guard thought Trentadue might
have been drunk when he tried to enter the U.S. A check for
warrants turned up one. It was for failure to report to a parole
officer. Trentadue was a fugitive; albeit for a minor infraction.
While processing the arrest records, authorities noted Trentadue's
general physical description, including a very unusual dragon tattoo
on his left arm. The entire description was a good match for the
elusive John Doe 2, a subject the government had been searching for
in connection to the Oklahoma City bombing for several weeks.
Not long after turning in the arrest report, a team of U.S. marshals
arrived to pick up the prisoner. Days later, Trentadue arrived at the
Oklahoma City FTC for a parole hearing.
Within 24 hours of his arrival at the Federal Transfer Center,
Trentadue became agitated, federal agents claimed. He also commented
to guards that he was the subject of some kind of misidentification
and might be in trouble for something he had not done.
A Bureau of Prison (BOP) report notes: "I must have got stepped into
some real _ _ _ _ somewhere."
Records from the prison also indicate that Trentadue requested that he
be taken out of the general population in the prison and placed
in a unit reserved for inmates requiring special protection. His
family doubts he made such a request, though.
Brother Jesse Trentadue commented: "We spoke to Kenny during this time
frame, and he was very upbeat and said nothing about any
danger he might be in or wanting to be taken to solitary. I believe he
was surprised when he was taken to the Special Housing Unit
(SHU)."
Hours after records indicate Trentadue was taken to the SHU, he was
found hanging from strips of a bed sheet - bloody, severely
bruised, his throat slashed and dead.
Despite the condition of his body suggesting that he had been severely
beaten, Bureau of Prison transfer center workers and member
of the Oklahoma City FBI ruled the death a suicide.
Federal workers at the transfer center told investigators that the
inmate appeared to be asleep when his cell was checked at 2:38 a.m.
on the morning of Aug. 21, 1995. When a guard made his next rounds at
3 a.m., the BOP worker reported Trentadue was hanging by
a bed sheet and there was considerable blood visible on the body and
in the cell.
When two employees from the state medical examiner's office arrived to
conduct an investigation, they were told they could not
examine the cell. Supervisors at the facility said they would do their
own investigation.
Turning away the medical examiners from the scene was a clear
violation of state law - one of many abuses of authority the
remarkable case would experience. Subsequent investigations would
uncover several cases of perjury and the destruction or loss of 41
critical pieces of evidence.
For the next three years, Oklahoma's medical examiner kept the
investigation open - refusing to bow to pressure from the FBI and
BOP to call the inmate's death on federal property a suicide.
Trentadue's severely cut and heavily bruised body had convinced Dr.
Jordan and his staff that the individual had been severely beaten
before death.
Since the BOP said Trentadue was in the SHU without access to other
prisoners, naturally the guards at the institution were the
primary suspects. And those guards immediately cleaned the cell and
kept the medical examiner's office from doing its own
investigation of the scene.
Many around the nation believed this was a classic government crime
and cover-up. Embarrassing headlines sizzled with innuendos of
government misdeeds in the inmate's death.
Intense lobbying by the victim's brother, Jesse Trentadue, resulted in
a whole host of investigations being launched, including a federal
grand jury review of the case; a FBI investigation, a number of
inquiries from congressmen; an investigation by Oklahoma District
Attorney Bob Macy; and an investigation by the Inspector General for
the Department of Justice in Washington D.C.
At the center of the whirlwind was one man, the Oklahoma Medical
Examiner, Dr. Fred Jordan.
For nearly two years, Jordan refused to declare Trentadue's death
suicide. In fact, Jordan on more than one occasion publicly stated
the inmate was probably killed by members of the federal government
who destroyed the evidence, thus he was unable to prove that a
murder had taken place.
Flip-flop
After three years of complaining about pressure he was receiving to
declare Trentatue's injuries self-inflicted, in July of 1998, Jordan
did
just that and amended the manner of the inmate's mysterious death from
"unknown" to "suicide." Persons close to the case were
shocked.
Jordan said he was able to reach the conclusion on to the manner of
death after receiving new evidence from the Oklahoma City Police
Department. Jordan's new evidence consisted of what he called evidence
of a suicide note the BOP and FBI said they found written on
a wall in the prisoner's cell. The note, Jordan said, contained the
words, "My minds no longer it's friend. Love Ya, Familia."
Also, the medical examiner concluded that inmate Trentadue "had
experienced very stressful events (being in prison) and facing
significant losses (a possible prison sentence if his parole was
revoked) just before death."
Jordan concluded his press statement, saying he regretted that
"previous investigative problems" prevented an earlier resolution of
the
Trentadue case.
Responding to Jordan's assertions that Trentadue had experienced very
stressful events and faced a long stint in prison for violating his
parole agreement, his brother Jesse told this newspaper, "We obtained
actual copies of taped phone calls and transcripts of phone
calls between the family and Kenney. At no time while Kenney was
talking to us from the OKC/FTC did he exhibit anything to indicate
he was worried about anything.
"We all knew he might be in jail a few weeks and that would be it. The
government has absolutely no proof of a change in his feelings
and they have those same tapes and transcripts.
"And that so-called suicide note is nowhere to be seen now. It was
painted over by the feds. They say they took a picture of it before
painting over it. It was supposed to have been signed by someone name
Paul. After Kenney was killed, they came up with a photo
they said was of some writing on the wall of Kenney's cell. Later when
they found out my brother's name was Kenneth they decided
the writing was signed Familia and not Paul.
"The feds never could find a handwriting analyst that would positively
say the writing was my brother's. One expert said he couldn't rule
it out and that apparently was all Jordan needed at that point."
Jordan also pointed to assistance he received from retired Oklahoma
City police detective Tom Bevel in persuading him Trentadue had
inflicted the approximately two-dozen cuts and bruises visible on the
body, before the inmate cut his throat and hanged himself.
A homicide detective, Bevel was part of special investigation headed
by Oklahoma District Attorney Bob Macy's office. Macy had been
asked to conduct an independent investigation into the suspicious
death after public confidence in the FBI and the BOP was
diminished by so many charges that crucial evidence in the case had
been mishandled, lost, and even destroyed by those agencies.
Eventually the Trentadue family learned that Bevel was not only
working for the Macy investigation team, but had also received
payments for his services in the case from Department of Justice and
the DOJ's oversight agency, the Office of Inspector General.
Upon learning of this, the family also learned that a forensic
document investigator from Macy's team, J. Michael Hull, had also
agreed
to serve as an expert to the DOJ, the very agency Jesse Trentadue and
his family were suing for the wrongful death of their loved one.
Incensed, Trentadue wrote Macy a letter on Feb. 28, 2000, raising the
issue of conflict of interest. Included in the scolding
correspondence, Trentadue made the following charges and observations:
"I am writing to complain about the conduct of two of the officers who
assisted your Task Force in the investigation into the
circumstances of my brother's death. The individuals about whom I wish
to complain are Tom Bevel and J. Michael Hull. My complaint
concerns the fact that these individuals have agreed to serve as paid
expert witnesses for the targets of that investigation, in violation
of the common law, the Oklahoma Political Subdivisions Ethics Act and
your trust.
"While employed by the Oklahoma City Police Department, Bevel was
assigned to assist the FBI in its initial investigation into the
circumstances of my brother's death. Hull while employed as a forensic
documents examiner at the Oklahoma City police department,
likewise was part of your Task Force. As you know, the targets of that
investigation were the Department of Justice and their
personnel.
"On Aug. 5, 1998, (when the ink on your Task Force's Final Report was
still wet) we discovered that both Bevel and Hull have agreed
to serve as highly paid expert witnesses for the Department of Justice
and other defendants in my family's civil lawsuit who happen to
the be the same targets of your investigation.
"As part of your Task Force, Bevel and Hull had access to confidential
information including Grand Jury materials not available to me
or my attorneys. They are now willing to sell this information to the
highest bidder, which happens to be the targets of their
investigation. ..... Bevel and Hull's conduct in this matter is
analogous to that of a prosecutor or county attorney investigating
organized crime who resigns his or her position with the government
and goes to work for the mobsters who were the target of the
investigation. This is not permissible because the former government
employee takes with him or her confidential and other information
acquired in his or her role as a public official. .... How, for
example, can you contend that your investigation into the
circumstances of
my brother's death was thorough, fair and objective when two of the
key investigators have sold out to the targets of that investigation?"
Macy responded to Trentadue's charges in a letter dated March 13,
2000.
"The simple fact is that both Bevel and Hull during their tenure with
the Oklahoma City Police Department assisted our office in an
impartial and neutral way and rendered their opinions based on
physical evidence gathered from the scene and during the
investigation. Those results are reflected in our report concluding
that your brother tragically committed suicide. ... After both men
retired from the Oklahoma City Police Department and completed their
work in this investigation they were available to either party.
Not surprisingly, because their findings and the evidence on the case
are fundamentally inconsistent with your lawsuit, the government
chose to call them as witnesses. The only question remaining is this:
now that neither are being paid for their time by the Oklahoma
City Police Department and indeed are employed providing expert
consulting service to the litigants whether they should volunteer
their
time and expertise to the government or charge their standard fees."
Documents provided this newspaper show that Tom Bevel collected $125
per hour for his work in the case. J. Michael Hull's fees came
to $120 per hour, plus travel expenses.
During testimony in the Trentadue family's wrongful death lawsuit
against the Department of Justice, Tom Bevel took the stand and
admitted his many roles and employers in the wide-ranging
investigation.
After acknowledging he retired from the Oklahoma City Police
Department in May 1996, Bevel said he was contacted by the Macy's
Oklahoma County Task Force charged with investigating Trentadue's
death. Once his final report was completed, Bevel said,
"Sometime later (I) was asked to look at the case by the U.S. Office
of Inspector General and then ultimately the U.S. Justice
Department retained me."
Asked what he did for the DOJ and OIG, Bevel said, "To do an analysis
of the cell primarily to identify the most probable sequence of
events that would have taken place.... Whether or not there was any
evidence of additional people involved in the activities, was there
anything that would be consistent with homicide. I did not."
Family sickened by treatment
Jesse Trentadue is still very disturbed about his treatment by Macy's
former investigators on the task force established to investigate
his brother's death.
"We trusted Bob Macy and his people. We put all our faith and trust in
them. The record shows they took information about our case
against the DOJ, then they went to work for the other side," Trentadue
said.
Before going over to work for the DOJ and OIG, Tom Bevel wrote a
report for the Macy task force that would later serve as a framework
the government could use to excuse employees of the DOJ from liability
in Kenneth Trentadue's mysterious death.
Referred to as the "Wintory Report" after the assistant district
attorney Macy assigned to form a task force to investigate the death,
the heart of the report is Tom Bevel's crime scene reconstruction.
Bevel's conclusions about Trentadue's last moments of life are
summarized in a filing by the Trentadue family in federal court: "The
Government claim that after the guards last saw Trentadue alive and in
bed at 2:38 a.m., Trentadue used a pencil to write a suicide
note on the wall of his cell, but did not sign that note with his own
name. Next, he patiently tore a sheet into dozens of strips. He then
constructed a ligature from those strips of bed sheet. Once that
ligature was manufactured, Trentadue re-made his bed, climbed the
wall of his cell and wove the bed sheet rope into a metal vent above
his sink. Trentadue then tried to hang himself and was
momentarily successful, but the bed sheet rope broke. Trentadue fell,
hitting his buttocks on the edge of the sink but doing no injury to
his buttocks. The impact of his body on the sink caused Trentadue to
ricochet across the cell headfirst into the corner of a metal desk
at the end of his bunk, producing a major wound on his forehead.
The Government claim that the force of that impact caused Trentadue to
rotate 180 degrees and careen across his cell to smash his
head, leaving blood and hair on the wall of his cell and tearing
extensive areas of skin off of his back. Despite striking the desk
with
such force, the impact does not disturb a cup of coffee or any of the
papers on the desk.
"The Government claims that while unconscious from his two head
wounds, Trentadue rolled over on his stomach and bled profusely,
depositing large pools of blood on the floor of his cell. When
Trentadue regained consciousness, he attempted to get up but struck
the
back of his head on the metal stool attached to the desk, causing a
third major wound on the back of his head. This third blow to his
head further dazed Trentadue, who then crawled on all fours, with his
clothing smearing the blood on the floor.
"The Government claim that Trentadue finally got to his feet and
staggered around, leaving blood deposits on the walls and floor of
his
cell. He then stumbled to his bed and lay down to regain his senses.
After a while, Trentadue used two plastic toothpaste tubes or a
plastic knife to cut his throat, leaving blood on his pillowcase,
sheet and blanket. When that second suicide attempt failed, Trentadue
reconstructed the bed sheet and successfully hanged himself."
With the release of the Wintory Report containing Bevel's crime scene
reconstruction, a very important component of what some
inside government were calling the "Trentadue Mission" was complete.
Unaware that individuals at the highest places in government were
coordinating a roll-out plan designed to put an end to all of the
investigations into his brother's death, Jesse Trentadue had been open
and candid with certain federal investigators he trusted.
Later, during the process of discovery in the family's wrongful death
civil suit against the government, Trentadue was shocked to
discover that many of the agencies he had placed so much faith inwere
actually working with lawyers on the other side of their family's
civil suit.
"On Aug. 13, 1997," Trentadue said, "the (federal) Grand Jury
investigating Kenney's death finished with a no bill of indictment.
The
conclusion of the Grand Jury was kept secret by the Department of
Justice in order to put in place the roll-out plan which it termed
the
Trentadue Mission. Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder chaired
meetings at which the roll-out plan was developed. The DOJ
personnel in charge of implementing the roll-out plan likened it to
the invasion of Normandy."
While some might discount Trentadue's statements as conspiracy
mongering, evidence reviewed by this newspaper establishes the
allegations are completely accurate.
Contained in an Oct. 1, 1997 e-mail by Juliette Kayyem of the DOJ, she
writes on the subject she refers to as "The Trentadue
Mission."
"This is like coordinating the invasion of Normandy. We are on for
Monday; the declination memo is done. Is this OK with Eric's
schedule (I can call whoever does that.) I talked to Faith and she is
going to think about the best way to approach Hatch and possibly
Dorgan, and I will get back to you. Also, we will be contacting the
FBI and Jesse Trentadue at the same time (about 2 hours before the
press release.)
Contained in an internal Justice Department memorandum, dated Oct. 6,
1997, an official writes that there will be a press release
issued on the Trentadue investigation in days and that it will not
provide any key details regarding perjury uncovered in the case.
The memo states: There is a potential perjury issue regarding a BOP
paramedic who indicated he administered CPR to the deceased
Trentadue, and the evidence of a video- tape does not indicate CPR was
administered.
Altered evidence?
The BOP and FBI later said the video-tape referred to in the memo was
really blank, claiming the operator apparently did not know how
to use the equipment.
Jesse Trentadue commented later, "Obviously some people reviewed that
video-tape after Kenney's death and saw evidence on it that
was damaging to their case. So they erased it. If the tape showed
blood splatter on the walls, as some witnesses later testified, that
would establish someone beat Kenney. If there were strange footprints
in the blood, that could lead to who was involved killing him."
One test the FBI performed later did indeed confirm that the tape had
been erased. When the FBI found out the independent expert
found evidence of erasure, they fired that man and got an FBI lab tech
to do another test. He said the tape had not been erased.
"We couldn't call the original expert at our civil trial because he
suddenly died. So what video-tape is this memo discussing? This is
just one of many - many of lies they told and got caught," Trentadue
said.
On Oct. 9, 1997, the DOJ issued the much anticipated press release
from Washington D.C.
"After an extensive investigation into the death of Kenneth Michael
Trentadue at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, the
Justice Department's Civil Rights Division today ended its probe,
determining that the evidence does not establish a violation of
federal
criminal law."
Hoping to next derail a threatened investigation by the Senate
Judiciary Committee, FBI agents contacted Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Don
Nickles for his help halting what could be a very embarrassing
inquiry.
According to the Dec. 5, 1997, memo, FBI headquarters in Washington
D.C. approved the head of the Oklahoma office, SAC Thomas
Kuker, leading a delegation of FBI agents to Nickles' Tulsa office.
Kuker recorded the highlights.
"At the conclusion of the meeting, which lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes,
Senator Nickles advised that it would be his decision whether
a Senate inquiry into this matter would be conducted. He indicated
that, at this present point in time, he was not inclined to initiate
such a review."
After this meeting, word of some newly discovered evidence in the
case, including a videotape, came to the attention of Sen. Nickles.
Kuker returned to see the powerful Oklahoma lawmaker once again.
Referring to the Jan. 23, 1998 memoranda of the meeting, Kukor wrote:
"He (Sen. Nickles) was further advised that BOP officials
attempted to video-tape the cell the morning of his death, but that
the camera malfunctioned. ... At the conclusion of the meeting, Sen.
Nickles thanked the FBI representatives for the time and candidness
regarding his questions. He also intimated that he had a
significant role in determining whether this matter would require
Congressional review, and that such action would most likely not be
necessary."
End of the 'Trentadue Mission'
With the federal Grand Jury issuing a no bill; the DOJ's Civil Rights
Division out of the investigation; any congressional action on hold
as a result of Sen. Nickles' promised intervention; the Oklahoma
medical examiner throttled; and Macy's office officially out of the
picture with the issuance of the Wintory Report, the government only
had to survive an OIG investigation and the Trentadue family's
wrongful death lawsuit. Once again, Tom Bevel's bizarre theory of
Trentadue's death would play a central role in the outcome of both
matters.
Hoping to stop some of the negative publicity generated by the case,
the DOJ sought and obtained an order from the federal judge in
the civil suit barring the plaintiffs in their civil suit from sharing
any information with the media, or any branch of law enforcement,
evidence gained during discovery in their lawsuit that might implicate
federal employees with perjury, obstruction of justice or any other
criminal acts.
In a most unusual protective order from U.S. District Judge Tim
Leonard, filed Aug. 18, 1998, the judge noted, "While mindful that
information disclosed in this lawsuit may coincide with information
relevant to other proceedings in other forums, the court chooses not
to allow the discovery process to become a pipeline of information to
non-parties over whom the court has no supervision."
"We were muzzled," Trentadue said later.
"We were discovering FBI and BOP misconduct, but this judge prohibited
us from disclosing it to the media or the DOJ or the
Inspector General who was still investigating all this. It was
incredible! As a lawyer, I'm shocked that any judge would do anything
like
this."
In a 206-page report by the Office of Inspector General, the findings
of perjury and mishandling of crucial evidence are also remarkable.
On the subject of a critical original document establishing precisely
what evidence an FBI agent actually received from the Trentadue
death scene, the OIG report notes:
The most troubling example of the failure of the FBI/OKC to produce
documents to the OIG in a timely fashion concerned the original
handwritten green sheet, prepared by (FBI agent) Jenkins, regarding
the FBI evidence received from the MEO.
After receiving repeated assurances from the Oklahoma City FBI office
that they had the original green sheet prepared in the agent's
handwriting, OIG investigators requested it be turned over for
comparison with a copy supplied them earlier by the OKC FBI."
Incredibly, the SAC of the office, Thomas Kuker refused to turn it
over, responding to the investigators that the FBI, "must
respectfully
decline" to provide the original handwritten green sheet to the OIG
and that "the original would provide you with no more information
than the copy provided earlier."
Then, pressed from Washington D.C. headquarters to supply the
document, the OKC/FBI office suddenly discovered the green sheet
had been destroyed.
When the OIG tried to get to the bottom of the matter, the office
learned that the FBI/OKC Chief Division Counsel at the time, Henry
Gibbons, was showed the document by an evidence clerk shortly before
it disappeared.
The OIG report notes: "Our investigation was hampered by our inability
to interview former FBI/OKC Chief Division Counsel Henry
Gibbons about this matter. After he retired from the FBI on May 31,
1998, he refused our repeated requests to talk to the OIG.
And so the matter ended there.
Evidence that could have proven where some of the missing evidence in
the case had gone was destroyed, and the top lawyer for the
OKC/FBI office refused to discuss the matter with investigators.
Rather than seek indictments against those federal workers suspected
of altering evidence, destroying it or just lying about it, memos
and emails obtained by the Trentadue family reveal that department's
Inspector General, Glenn Fine, seemed pleased to end the whole
thing without criminal prosecutions.
Evidence turned over to this newspaper suggests Fine coordinated the
release of his final report with a press release expected from
Lee Radek, Chief of the Public Integrity Section of the Justice
Department. The Public Integrity Section of the DOJ is a special unit
assigned to investigate sensitive cases where federal employees were
found to have broken federal laws.
Indeed, several federal agents and federal employees were found by the
OIG's investigation to have committed perjury in the Trentadue
matter.
Rather than push for prosecutions against the wrongdoers -prosecutions
that could have brought resulted in plea-bargains and possibly
answers to what really happened to inmate Trentadue - evidence
suggests the inspector general helped close down the investigation
without seeking those indictments.
Dated Nov. 16, 1999, Fine sent an email to Lee Radek, head of the
Public Integrity Section - a man appointed to the position by
President Bill Clinton.
"Lee: Could you fax over the declination letter in the Trentadue case
or the standard language that is used in such a letter. I want to
get the wording right in our report. The number is (redacted) Thanks
Glenn
Radek responded the same day: The key words will be declined for
prosecutorial merit - our usual language. (emphasis added)
The Trentadue family is waiting a decision from the 10th Circuit Court
of Appeals in Denver on the issue of over $1million awarded them
after a judgment was awarded at the conclusion of their civil suit
against the government.
Salt Lake City attorney Trentadue says: "The government spent at least
$10 million defending themselves in this case. And even
though they lost, they won't pay us. Even when the government finds
that federal agents lied to us, no one is prosecuted or goes to
jail. They would like to put us all in jail for daring to question
them! What the hell is wrong with our system of justice? This case
shows
just how corrupt it is!"
Stung by this family's relentless pursuit of answers in the case and
their vehement charges of cover-up, FBI agents in Oklahoma and
elsewhere have been conducting a criminal investigation into Jesse
Trentadue for several years.
Contained in an internal FBI investigation report obtained by this
newspaper, a FBI agent discusses legal strategies to use against one
of their most vocal and effective critics.
"By listing Jesse Trentadue as subject of another investigation
(obstruction of justice), that would place him as a target on one of
investigations and this would also prohibit Jesse Trentadue from
testifying before the Federal Grand Jury."
The attorney is undeterred.
"We'll see who gets who," Trentadue laughs when discussing Justice
Department efforts to discredit his personal crusade.
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/kenneth_michael_trentadue_05.htm
===
Nichols Fingers FBI Agent Directing McVeigh in OKC Bombing By Name
Newspaper reported name of Potts before court sealed documents
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
Prison Planet
Thursday, February 22, 2007
A newspaper reported the name of the FBI agent fingered by Terry
Nichols as having led Timothy McVeigh in carrying out the
Oklahoma City bombing before a Utah court order sealed documents
pertaining to the testimony.
Though subsequent reports do not mention the accused agent by name,
the Deseret Morning News identified the individual as Larry
Potts, who was the lead FBI agent during the Ruby Ridge confrontation
in 1992 and was also involved in the 51-day siege of the
Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas in 1993.
Potts (pictured above) was forced to retire after it emerged that he
tried to cover-up an order to shoot anyone seen leaving the Weaver
cabin at Ruby Ridge.
"McVeigh said he believed Potts was manipulating him and forcing him
to 'go off script,' which I understood meant to change the target
of the bombing," Nichols stated.
Click here for our extended report on this explosive story and watch
this space for developments.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2007/220207fbiagent.htm
==
New OKC Revelations Spotlight FBI Involvement In Bombing
Nichols' claim that McVeigh had government handlers supported by huge
weight of known evidence
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
Prison Planet
Thursday, February 22, 2007
New claims by Oklahoma City Bombing conspirator Terry Nichols that
Timothy McVeigh was being steered by a high-level FBI official
are supported by a plethora of evidence that proves McVeigh did not
act alone and that authorities had prior warnings and were
complicit in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported yesterday,
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.
In another report, the Deseret Morning News named the FBI agent at
Larry Potts, but that information has now been sealed by the
court.
Potts was no stranger to anti-government confrontations, having
been the lead FBI agent at Ruby Ridge in 1992, which led to the
shooting death of Vicki Weaver, the wife of separatist Randy
Weaver.Potts also was reportedly involved in the 51-day siege of the
Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas in 1993, which resulted in a
fire that killed 81 Branch Davidian followers.
Potts retired from the FBI under intense pressure and criticism
for the cover-up of an order to allow agents to shoot anyone seen
leaving the Weaver cabin at Ruby Ridge.
"McVeigh said he believed Potts was manipulating him and forcing
him to 'go off script,' which I understood meant to change the
target of the bombing," Nichols stated.
The affidavit was filed in a lawsuit brought by attorney Jesse
Trentadue, whose brother Kenneth was tortured and beaten to death in
an
Oklahoma City federal prison in 1995. Authorities claimed Trentadue
had committed suicide but he was being held in a suicide proof
cell at the time and autopsy photos of his body showed he had been
shocked with a stun gun, bruised, burned, sliced and then hung.
Jesse Trentadue has amassed evidence that his brother was mistaken for
one of Timothy McVeigh's alleged bombing accomplices
and in attempting to get him to talk Federal agents went too far and
then tried to instigate a cover-up of the murder.
Just like 9/11, the official story of the Oklahoma City Bombing, that
McVeigh alone carried out the attack using a fertilizer truck bomb,
is contradicted by a plethora of eyewitness account as well as
physical and circumstantial evidence.
- In early April 1995 a Ryder truck identical to the one used in the
bombing was filmed by a pilot during an overflight of of an area near
Camp Gruber-Braggs, Oklahoma. A June 17th, 1997 Washington Post
article authenticates the photos as being exactly what they
appear to be, photos of a Ryder truck in a clandestine base at Camp
Gruber-Braggs. Why were the military in possession of a Ryder
truck housed in a remote clandestine army base days before the Alfred
P. Murrah bombing?
- In a 1993 letter to his sister, McVeigh claimed that he was
approached by military intelligence and had joined an "elite squad of
government paid assassins." McVeigh often contradicted himself and
changed his story on a whim to fit in with the latest government
version of events. Is the Camp Grafton footage evidence of McVeigh's
enrollment in such a clandestine program?
- Multiple reports of Arabs at the scene assisting McVeigh were
ignored and surveillance tapes were withheld under national security.
The likely reason for this was the fact that Bush senior and Clinton
were responsible for bringing in nearly 1,000 Iraqi soldiers captured
by U.S. forces during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, some of whom were
involved in the bombing.
- The FBI claimed McVeigh scouted the Alfred P. Murrah building weeks
before the bombing and yet on the morning of the attack he
stopped at a local gas station to ask directions, lending credibility
to the new claims that he was being controlled by other
conspirators and that the target of the bombing had been changed.
- Original reports of two explosions and several failed devices being
defused by bomb squads were buried by the establishment as the
official explanation that McVeigh acted alone was pushed. Scientific
analysis conducted by General Benton K. Partin revealed core
columns were blown out from within the building and the extensive
damage to the Alfred P. Murrah building was completely
inconsistent with the explanation of a single and relatively weak
fertilizer truck bomb.
- Many eyewitnesses reported that bomb squads in full reaction gear
were seen around the building immediately before the blast.
Police officer Terence Yeakey, who helped save dozens of victims, was
one such witness. Yeakey compiled extensive files on his
observations but was later found with his throat and wrists slashed
having also been shot in the head after he had told friends he was
being followed by authorities.
- Several individuals received prior warning that the bombing was
about to take place. Bruce Shaw, who rushed to the Murrah building
to find his wife who was employed there with the Federal Credit Union,
testified that an ATF agent told him that ATF staff had been
warned on their pagers not to come to work that day.
- The aftermath of the bombing led to the passage of the Omnibus Crime
Bill and the demonization of the 'Patriot Movement', which
was spreading like wildfire as opposition to federal government abuse
grew following the events at Ruby Ridge and Waco. The
consequences of the Oklahoma City Bombing effectively dismantled the
Patriot Movement before the turn of the century.
In December, we reported on a video that shows McVeigh at a U.S.
military base that specialized in explosives and demolition training
over a year after he supposedly left the army. The tape, released by
film producer Bill Bean, was the subject of a Hustler Magazine
feature story.
Appearing last night on George Noory's Coast to Coast broadcast,
America's biggest late night radio show, Alex Jones said he
expected to talk to Jesse Trentadue imminently and it was further
suggested by Noory that he and Jones should travel to Nichols'
prison to interview him in person.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2007/220207okcrevelations.htm