Witnesses at Terry Nichols’ murder trial in McAlester, Okla., today testified bomber Timothy McVeigh walked into a hair salon the day before the blast with a man who resembles suspect John Doe No. 2.
During the FBI investigation of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, the agency released a sketch of a dark-skinned man who was believed to have helped McVeigh rent the truck he used in the attack, which killed 168 people. According to an Associated Press report, Nichols’ attorneys hope to show their client has nothing to do with the planning and execution of the bombing.
The government contends John Doe No. 2 was identified as an Army private who had been in the truck-rental shop the day after McVeigh and was not involved in the crime.
One witness, Kathy Henderson, who worked in a hair salon in Junction City, Kan., testified today that the sketches of McVeigh and the dark-skinned suspect look “almost exactly” like the men who came into her shop on April 18, 1995. Another witness, salon employee Tonia Rumbaugh, said the unidentified man appeared to be Hispanic, with thick, dark hair that was tinged with gray, according to AP.
Rumbaugh says the Hispanic-looking man asked for an appointment for a haircut, but there were no openings.
Though Nichols was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy counts in the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers – for which he is serving a life sentence – he now is being tried on state murder charges for the deaths of 161 bombing victims.
In “The Third Terrorist: The Middle Eastern Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing,” author Jayna Davis suggests the September 11 attacks possibly could have been prevented if evidence of an Iraqi and al-Qaida link to the OKC bombing had been pursued – evidence that points to a man she believes could be John Doe No. 2.
Davis writes that in November 1997, Hussain Hashem Al-Hussaini – a former Iraqi Republican Guardsman whom multiple eyewitnesses identified as McVeigh’s elusive accomplice – confided to his psychiatrist that he was anxious about his airport job because “if something were to happen there, I (Al-Hussaini) would be a suspect.” At the time, Al-Hussaini was employed at Boston Logan International Airport, where two of the four 9-11 suicide hijackings originated.
She also reveals court records that suggest one of bombers Timothy McVeigh’s and Terry Nichols’s accused Middle Eastern handlers had foreknowledge of the 9-11 plot.
Read WorldNetDaily’s extensive coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing case.
