Feds' 'McVeigh excuse' prompts response

David Schippers

Responding to the Obama administration's attempt to justify a controversial "right-wing extremism" report by citing Timothy McVeigh, a counter-terrorism group has posted a video statement by a prominent Democrat investigator who contends the Oklahoma City bomb plot was hatched not by right-wingers but by Islamic jihadists.

David Schippers, the chief counsel for the 1998 impeachment trial of President Clinton, probed the bombing with investigative reporter Jayna Davis, author of "The Third Terrorist: The Middle Eastern Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing", by WND Books. Davis asserts McVeigh and Terry Nichols were not the lone conspirators but part of a greater scheme involving Islamic terrorists and at least one provable link to Iraq. The explosion April 19, 1995, at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killed 168 people, including 19 children, and injured another 684.

In the video, released by America's Truth Forum, Schippers says there's "no question the Oklahoma City bombing was a part of a state-sponsored attack on the heartland of the United States."

"I have been asked about the Oklahoma bombing and whether there was any kind of federal cover-up. The simple and direct answer is yes," he said. "Unquestionably, a federal cover-up beginning in 1995 and continuing to today."

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As WND reported last week, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security cited McVeigh as a reason that "right wing" interests must be monitored closely by his agency.

Agency spokesman Sean Smith told talk-radio host and WND columnist Roger Hedgecock, "There was a very tragic example of a threat that was realized and materialized in this country, almost 14 years ago to the day, in Oklahoma City. I'm talking about Tim McVeigh."

Hedgecock was the first to expose the Department of Homeland Security report on "right-wing extremism" that pointed to a potential threat from returning war veterans, abortion opponents, gun-rights advocates and supporters of third-party candidates, among others.

Smith emphasized the Oklahoma bombing was carried out "by someone who unfortunately was a returning vet."

America's Truth Forum President Jeffrey Epstein was among the critics of the DHS report.

"Taking a lesson from history, one can clearly gauge the health of a nation by the way it treats its servicemen," he said.

Epstein called Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano's targeting of "our nation's heroes" a "revolting and groundless assertion based solely upon the government's flawed OKC bombing investigation."

"In doing so, Napolitano recklessly ignored the fact that despite Bill Clinton's best efforts, ties couldn't be established between Timothy McVeigh and right-wing extremist groups," Epstein said. "Perhaps, the 'real' enemies of our state are at the helm."

Epstein said the Schippers video was produced several years ago, but it has been publicly released for the first time. Schippers, a Chicago-based attorney, recently affirmed that he stands by the statements, Epstein said.

Schippers says in the taped interview the FBI inexplicably closed its probe into the infamous "John Doe No. 2" suspect despite numerous witnesses he interviewed who identified a "foreign-looking man" with McVeigh immediately before the bombing.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who produced a report two years ago on the alleged foreign-link to the bombing, told WND he experienced a "high level of frustration" during his own investigation "with how many people, from local newspapers to the FBI, to just even other members of Congress, who are just anxious not to even give another look at this monstrous crime that really appears to be unresolved."

Rohrabacher attributes some of opposition to people in a bureaucracy trying to cover up incompetence and bad decisions. But his report offers insight into the mindset of the Clinton administration, suggesting the former president did not want to confront the possibility Islamic terrorists – and ultimately a Middle Eastern state – were involved.

It's now clear, Rohrabacher told WND at the time, that the Clinton administration had "an aversion to any type of efforts by our government that would in some way require the use of force against foreign enemies, and especially in the Middle East."

Schippers points out McVeigh partner Nichols made several trips to the Philippines prior to the bombing, and there is evidence he met with Islamic jihadists tied to al-Qaida.

Former Clinton counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke notes in his book "Against All Enemies" that Nichols was in the Philippines in the same city at the same time as Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted of participation in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

"We do know that Nichols' bombs did not work before his Philippine stay and were deadly when he returned," Clarke writes.

Schippers also points out Yossef Bodansky, the director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, issued a warning two months prior to the Oklahoma City bombing that Iran-sponsored Islamist terrorists had recruited 'two lily whites' – people like McVeigh and Nichols – to carry out the bombing of an American federal building.

Schippers contends the FBI failed to establish a tie between McVeigh and right-wing militias. Some independent investigators dispute that, including Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who believes McVeigh was aided by a white supremacist group that had been infiltrated by the FBI.

Trentadue obtained FBI documents in his Freedom of Information Act suit against the agency, which he says bolster his belief the FBI had prior knowledge of the bombing.

Davis, who began her investigation while covering the bombing as a local TV reporter, dismisses the theory centered on a German national who was in the U.S. illegally in 1995, Andreas Carl Strassmeier, and domestic neo-Nazis at a white supremacist compound in Oklahoma called Elohim City.

"FBI agents have testified the neo-Nazi, Elohim City connection is nothing more than a dry hole," Davis argues. "There's not one motel log, one phone log, one fingerprint or eyewitness account that can tie any of these Nazi conspirators or Strassmeier to overt commission of a crime."

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Previous stories:

McVeigh cited again as reason for 'right-wing' warning

State drops warning over militia members

Victims' families demand action on 'foreign link'

Probe of Islamic ties 'obstructed' by feds

'Foreign connection' hearing canceled

Hearing on possible Mideast link in doubt

Congressman defends 'foreign-link' hearing

Congress to hold hearings into OKC bombing

Author hammers congressman over probe

Congressman demands new OKC bomb probe

Docs: Secret Service took thousands of phone records

'Compelling' evidence of another terrorist

Agent: Feds told of threats to blow buildings

Oklahoma City FBI surrenders documents to court

Congressman to FBI: Turn over documents

FBI must turn over investigation docs

Ex-Green Beret involved in attack?

FBI has secret docs it's reluctant to give up

Withheld evidence to sink case against Nichols?

Declassified FBI memo reveals twists in probe

Reporter's Oklahoma City coverage vindicated

Was FBI early arrival in Oklahoma City?

Another suicide or another cover-up?

Read WorldNetDaily's extensive coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing case.