OKbomb conspiranoia back to haunt us

Chip Berlet cberlet at igc.org
Mon Nov 26 16:15:48 PST 2001


Hi,

Exactly how does a speculative but legitimate article by James Patterson suggest to you we should read the febrile potboiler by conspiracist David Hoffman whose book was shredded because he lost a defamation battle?

=====

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The California publisher of a controversial book about the Oklahoma City bombing will destroy copies of the book as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by a former FBI official over false and inaccurate statements in the book.

Stan Twardy, attorney for former FBI official Oliver "Buck" Revell, said Friday that the number of books being destroyed was not available but he described it as "substantial." The publisher said all books in its distributor's warehouse would be destroyed.

Revell said David Hoffman's book, "The Oklahoma City Bombing and The Politics of Terror" contained false and inaccurate statements about him and "by innuendo" portrayed him as a co-conspirator in the bombing.

Feral House Inc. promised to destroy copies of the book to avoid "further dissemination of inaccurate statements."

"Whatever `The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror' states, alleges or implies, it is now my understanding that Mr. Revell had nothing to do with any alleged CIA drug smuggling, so-called `death squads' or malfeasance involving the Oklahoma City bombing, before or after," Feral House President Adam Parfrey wrote in an open letter. <snip>

=====

-Chip


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Hakki Alacakaptan
> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 3:03 PM
> To: Lbo-Talk
> Subject: OKbomb conspiranoia back to haunt us
>
>
> There's a book on the net called “The Oklahoma City Bombing
> and the Politics
> of Terror” by David Hoffman that I've been falsely accused of
> endorsing. The
> book reports that the FBI withheld and concealed evidence
> pointing to other
> accomplices, possibly Middle Eastern types (this among a
> great number of
> other hypotheses and conjectures). Gore Vidal has deemed it
> necessary to
> endorse the book, although it is generally looked upon by the
> left as a
> piece of non-PC conspirania. Well, maybe it's time to look again:
>
> Hakki
>
> http://www.indystar.com/cgi-bin/print.php3
>
> JAMES PATTERSON
>
> Missing evidence from Oklahoma City
>
> November 17, 2001
>
> The FBI doesn't want to talk about it, but the evidence keeps
> mounting.
>
> Critical evidence that several Middle Eastern men may have
> been connected to
> the Oklahoma City bombing appears to have been kept from the
> public by the
> FBI.
>
> By law, such information should have been turned over to lawyers
> representing executed bomber Timothy McVeigh, and it must be
> given to the
> legal team for co-conspirator Terry Nichols, whose state case
> opened in an
> Oklahoma court two weeks ago.
>
> Officially, the FBI has dismissed the possibility of a John
> Doe No. 2, an
> olive-skinned man whose sketch they released immediately
> after the bombing,
> or other suspects. But current and former FBI agents in
> Oklahoma City say
> they received documents pointing to another person or even a
> cell of Middle
> Eastern operatives.
>
> At a minimum, Congress should question one former FBI agent
> who says he
> obtained 22 affidavits and more than 30 witness statements describing
> sightings of Middle Easterners with McVeigh. Although he passed the
> materials on to a superior, the evidence never surfaced and
> was not given to
> McVeigh's or Nichols' defense teams.
>
> The affidavits and witness statements described a close-knit
> group of Middle
> Eastern men living in Oklahoma City and surrounding areas who
> were seen with
> McVeigh on numerous occasions in the months and weeks leading
> up to the
> bombing.
>
> Even worse, the agents believe if that evidence had not been
> suppressed by
> the FBI, it could have helped uncover plans leading to the
> Sept. 11 attacks
> on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Lawmakers should demand a full
> accounting of the missing documents given to the FBI.
>
> Six days before McVeigh was scheduled to die at the federal
> prison in Terre
> Haute, Attorney General John Ashcroft postponed the execution
> because of
> revelations the FBI had failed to turn over more than 3,000
> documents to
> McVeigh's defense team.
>
> Though none of the new evidence was able to persuade the
> trial judge to save
> McVeigh, it showed that the FBI had withheld important
> information in the
> April 19, 1995, bombing.
>
> The former agent does not want his name used, but, if
> subpoenaed, is willing
> to testify about the documents either in court or on Capitol Hill.
>
> In January 1999, the agent got the documents from former Oklahoma City
> KFOR-TV reporter Jayna Davis. Davis had done a six-year investigation
> beginning on the day of the bombing, documenting a cell of
> Middle Eastern
> individuals operating in Oklahoma City under suspicious circumstances.
>
> "She started in 1997 trying to turn those documents over to
> the FBI and we
> refused to take those documents because we knew at the time that those
> documents would have to be turned over to the defense
> attorneys . . . ,"
> said the former agent.
>
> Two weeks ago, the Justice Department quashed motions to allow 18 FBI
> agents, including the agent who received the documents from Davis, to
> testify in Nichols' state case. At least one of those agents
> believes that
> if the FBI had followed up on the affidavits that he turned
> over to his
> superiors, the Sept. 11 attacks could have been prevented.
>
> "We don't know what ever happened to those documents," the
> former agent
> said. "We know they were never given to the defense
> attorneys. And that's
> really what I was going to testify about, the fact that those
> documents were
> in FBI custody. And I don't know to this day what happened to
> the documents.
> We did have some Oklahoma connections to the events in
> Washington, D.C., and
> New York City. We did find out that one of these individuals
> was trying to
> take flight training at a Norman (Okla.) flight instruction school."
>
> Other former and current FBI agents in the Oklahoma City
> field office have
> also questioned the agency's handling of evidence. During an interview
> broadcast in May on Sixty Minutes II, they discussed the
> missing documents
> that surfaced right before McVeigh's initial execution date.
> "There's no
> reason for it unless there is negligence," agent Jim Volz
> told the news
> magazine.
>
> These people want the truth. The American people want the
> truth. Next week's
> column will ask members of Congress if they do, too.
>



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