http://www.cooperativeresearch.org The Center for Grassroots Oversight aims to provide the public with a means to collaborate on investigations at the grassroots level. en-us http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a041510msnbcmcveigh#a041510msnbcmcveigh http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a041510msnbcmcveigh#a041510msnbcmcveigh MSNBC airs a documentary about convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (see and ), who before his execution confessed to bombing the Murrah Federal Building to Buffalo News reporters Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck. Michel and Herbeck went on to write a 2001 biography of McVeigh, ''American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing'', based on their interviews with McVeigh. The MSNBC documentary, ''The McVeigh Tapes: Confessions of an American Terrorist'', features excerpts drawn from the 45 hours of audio recordings made by Michel. The documentary will be broadcast on April 19, the 15th anniversary of the bombing, and features film of the bombing and its aftermath; computer-generated recreations to augment the actual audio recordings (with an actor playing McVeigh); and interviews with survivors of the bombing and family members of the slain. McVeigh told of his childhood in upstate New York , his experiences in the 1991 Gulf War , his relationship with convicted co-conspirator Terry Nichols , and of the meticulous planning and execution of the bombing. One of the few moments when McVeigh's voice became animated was when he described the moments before the bomb went off, saying, "I lit the two-minute fuse at the stoplight, and I swear to God that was the longest stoplight I've ever sat at in my life." The documentary is narrated by MSNBC talk show host Rachel Maddow. Herbeck says he understands that the documentary will evoke strong feelings. "Some people will say they don't want to hear anything about Timothy McVeigh and we respect their feelings on that," he says. "But others are interested in hearing what made a terrorist tick." Michel says, "[It's an] oral blueprint of what turned one young man into one of the worst mass-murderers and terrorists in American history." Herbeck says their book drew similar mixed reactions: "A few of the victims were outraged by our book, and they went public with their feelings. They felt it was wrong to tell the story of a terrorist." Maddow says she is not worried that the documentary will somehow glamorize McVeigh or make him into a martyr figure: "McVeigh is profoundly unsympathetic--even repugnant--on his own terms, you don't need to work to make him seem that way. There's a huge distance between the hero he is in his own mind, and how basely unheroic he seems to anyone hearing the tapes now. I personally am not a supporter of the death penalty ... but hearing him talk, it's hard not to wish him gone." In the documentary, Jannie Coverdale, who lost her two young grandchildren in the blast, says: "I was glad when he died. I will never forgive Timothy McVeigh." Oklahoma City Police Department official Jennifer Rodgers, one of the first responders to the bombing , says her feelings are "still raw. ... It just doesn't seem like it was really that long ago." Maddow says the story is important even 15 years later: "The Murrah Building bombing is the worst incident of domestic terrorism we've ever experienced as a nation. We owe pure remembrance of the date, and commemoration of the lives lost and changed. I think it's also an appropriate occasion to talk about the threat of domestic terrorism. How strong is the threat now, 15 years after McVeigh? Are we heeding warning signs that may be out there now?" Former President Clinton, who oversaw the federal efforts to respond to the bombing, has recently warned that ugly and frightening parallels exist between the current political tensions and the anti-government rage that preceded McVeigh's attack, saying: "We can disagree with them [elected officials], we can harshly criticize them. But when we turn them into an object of demonization, we increase the number of threats." Michel says: "There's no question that the militia movement is on the rise again. Some of the same factors that caused McVeigh to believe he had become disenfranchised from mainstream society are again in the mix: growing government regulations, lack of employment. Those are things McVeigh would cite if he were alive." In the documentary, Maddow says of the date of the airing: "On this date, which holds great meaning for the anti-government movement, the McVeigh tapes are a can't-turn-away, riveting reminder." Washington Post reviewer Hank Steuver calls the documentary "chilling" and McVeigh's demeanor "arrogan[t]" and unrepentant. "Maddow and company wisely decline to draw too straight a line from 1995 to 2010, but, as she indicates, it might be helpful in crazy times to study this sort of crazy head-on," he writes. "Watching this, it's easy to feel like that fuse is still lit." New York Times reviewer Alessandra Stanley says the use of an actor and computer effects "blunts its impact by relying on stagy computer graphics. ... Scenes of this domestic terrorist in shackles during a prison interview or lighting a fuse inside a rented Ryder truck look neither real nor completely fake, but certainly cheesy: a violent video game with McVeigh as a methodical, murderous avatar." The documentary is later made available on YouTube. mtuck 2013-03-03T19:00:34+01:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a071005nicholselohim#a071005nicholselohim http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a071005nicholselohim#a071005nicholselohim Convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols has said that he believes his co-conspirator, Timothy McVeigh , was involved with a white supremacist compound in eastern Oklahoma, Elohim City . Nichols's statements to the FBI, a US congressman, and his family are now being reported by The Oklahoman. Representative Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA), who met with Nichols on June 27, 2005 at the federal prison in Florence, Colorado, says: "He said he was driving past it one time and Tim McVeigh knew everything about Elohim City, just told him all about it. And he said on a number of occasions ... Tim McVeigh mentioned his friend, Andy the German, who lives at Elohim City. ... So there was a strong indication that Tim McVeigh had much more than just a minor association with some of the people at Elohim City." "Andy the German" is Andreas Strassmeir, a former German soldier who helped coordinate security at Elohim City . Strassmeir has admitted meeting McVeigh at a 1993 Tulsa gun show , but has said he never saw or spoke with him again. Strassmeir has denied any role in the bombing , as has Elohim City leader Robert Millar . The FBI investigated Elohim City after discovering McVeigh called there two weeks before the bombing , and ruled out the residents as suspects . The bureau never found conclusive proof that McVeigh ever visited there, though other sources found that McVeigh and Nichols had visited there in late 1993 and learned that McVeigh took part in paramilitary exercises there in late 1994 . For years, many have speculated that Strassmeir and other Elohim City residents may have played a part in the bombing; Rohrbacher says he is considering holding Congressional hearings on the possibility, and says he asked Nichols specifically about those theories. Former federal informant Carole Howe has claimed she saw McVeigh and Strassmeir together at Elohim City in July 1994, and has said Strassmeir talked about blowing up federal buildings in Oklahoma (see and ). Federal prosecutors did not believe Howe's claims. A precursor of the McVeigh-Nichols bomb plot was hatched in 1983 by Elohim City residents . Some believe that Strassmeir may have been McVeigh's alleged co-conspirator identified only as "John Doe No. 2" , even though federal authorities have said that person was not involved with Nichols or McVeigh . McVeigh told his friend Michael Fortier that he planned the Oklahoma City bombing with input from people at Elohim City . Less than two weeks before the bombing, McVeigh went to a strip club with people from Elohim City, including Strassmeir . mtuck 2013-03-03T19:00:18+01:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a042510mcveighnimmo#a042510mcveighnimmo http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a042510mcveighnimmo#a042510mcveighnimmo Kurt Nimmo, writing for the right-wing conspiracy Web site Infowars (.com), calls the recent MSNBC documentary featuring the confession of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh a "fairy tale." Nimmo writes: "On the fifteenth anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, MSNBC ran a documentary supposedly detailing Timothy McVeigh's death row 'confession.' The documentary--actually a fairy tale of easily debunked government propaganda hosted by the 'progressive' Rachel Maddow--employs alleged tape recordings of McVeigh coupled with cheesy computer simulations intended to dredge up the government version of events and thus rekindle hysteria manufactured in the 1990s concerning the threat posed by militias and patriot groups." Nimmo says the documentary "omits a large amount of evidence that seriously undermines the government version repeated and amplified by the corporate media (see , and recounts a number of oddities surrounding the bombing that have not yet been explained, such as the "inexplicable" absence of FBI and BATF agents in the Murrah Building the day of the bombing (eight federal agents were killed in the blast--see ), allegations that judicial and FBI officials were warned about the bombing ahead of time, and a raft of unexplained information about other possible conspirators . Nimmo calls the documentary "crude propaganda" designed to conceal what he calls the likelihood that the bombing was a government operation designed to demonize militia and anti-government organizations. He says the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an anti-hate organization that tracks violent anti-government organizations, is one of the organizations behind the documentary, and calls the SPLC's Mark Potok, who appears in the documentary, the organization's "propaganda minister." He concludes: "The OK City bombing was a false flag attack perpetuated by the government 'to gain a political end' and that end was to demonize political opposition. It is an effort that continues today and will expand as the political opposition gains popular support." mtuck 2013-03-02T22:12:51+01:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a040205nicholscrawl#a040205nicholscrawl http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a040205nicholscrawl#a040205nicholscrawl The FBI searches the home that once belonged to convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols (see and ) and finds explosive materials related to the 1995 bombing . The bureau acts on a tip that it missed evidence in its search a decade earlier . Blasting caps and other explosive materials were concealed in a crawl space of the Herington, Kansas, home, buried under about a foot of rock, dirt, and gravel, an area not searched in the 1995 investigation. FBI agent Gary Johnson says, "[T]he information so far indicates the items have been there since prior to the Oklahoma City bombing." Nichols's lawyer, Brian Hermanson, says the discovery is either a hoax or evidence of a major failure by the FBI: "They were there often. It's surprising. I would think they would have done their job and found everything that was there. But I'm still suspicious that it could be something planted there. The house was empty for several years." Reportedly, Nichols has admitted conspiring to build the bomb that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City . mtuck 2013-03-02T22:12:15+01:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a021303fbievidenceap#a021303fbievidenceap http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a021303fbievidenceap#a021303fbievidenceap The FBI gathered a significant amount of evidence that showed links between convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and white supremacists who had threatened to attack government buildings, according to investigative memos procured by the Associated Press. This evidence includes hotel receipts, a speeding ticket, prisoner interviews, informant reports, and phone records suggesting that McVeigh had contact with white supremacists connected to the Elohim City community . "It is suspected that members of Elohim City are involved either directly or indirectly through conspiracy," FBI agents wrote in a memo shortly after the bombing . An FBI teletype shows that some of the supremacists who were present when McVeigh called Elohim City were familiar with explosives, and had made a videotape in February 1995 vowing to wage war against the federal government and promising a "courthouse massacre." The AP notes that the Murrah Building, devastated by the blast, was directly across the street from the federal courthouse. The teletype also notes that two members of a violent Aryan Nation bank robbery gang who live in the Elohim City compound left the compound on April 16 for a location in Kansas a few hours away from where McVeigh completed the final assembly of the bomb . Some of the evidence was not turned over to McVeigh's lawyers for his trial. "They short-circuited the search for the truth," says McVeigh's original lead attorney, Stephen Jones. "I don't doubt Tim's role in the conspiracy. But I think he clearly aggrandized his role, enlarged it, to cover for others who were involved." The FBI agent in charge of the investigation, Dan Defenbaugh, says he never saw the FBI teletype that linked McVeigh to the Elohim City community. He says he would not have considered the teletype a "smoking gun" that would have altered the outcome of the investigation, but his team "shouldn't have been cut out. We should have been kept in on all the items of the robbery investigation until it was resolved as connected or not connected to Oklahoma City." Defenbaugh adds that he knew nothing of a 1996 plea offer by prosecutors to one of the robbers, Peter Kevin Langan (identified by the AP as Kevin Peter Langan), who said he had information about the bombing. Langan made several demands the government was unwilling to meet, and the plea offer was rescinded. Langan's lawyer later said Langan could disprove the April 19, 1995 alibis for two of the bank robbers, casting doubt on their denials of non-involvement with the bomb conspiracy. The FBI acknowledges its failure to turn over some documents, but says it found no evidence that McVeigh was involved with anyone in the conspiracy aside from his accomplice Terry Nichols (see and ). FBI spokesman Mike Kortan says: "We believe we conducted an exhaustive investigation that pursued every possible lead and ran it to ground. We are confident that those who committed the crime have been brought to justice and that there are no other accomplices out there." Part of the problem, Defenbaugh says, was that white supremacist militia groups shared many of McVeigh's far-right beliefs, and some had their own plans for carrying out bombings that had nothing to do with McVeigh's tightly controlled conspiracy. "Even though we had our conspiracy theories, we still had to deal with facts and the fact is we couldn't find anyone else who was involved," Defenbaugh says. Jones says of the Elohim City connection: "I think Tim was there. I think he knew those people and I think some helped, if not in a specific way, in a general way." Retired FBI agent Danny Coulson says: "I think you have too many coincidences here that raise questions about whether other people are involved. The close associations with Elohim City and the earlier plan to do the same Murrah building all suggest the complicity of other people." mtuck 2013-02-26T17:26:41+01:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a0901mcveighvidal#a0901mcveighvidal http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a0901mcveighvidal#a0901mcveighvidal Vanity Fair publishes a profile of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh by author and pundit Gore Vidal, who attended McVeigh's execution and who exchanged letters with McVeigh for three years while he awaited execution. McVeigh invited Vidal to attend his execution as a result of their letter exchange. Vidal is convinced that the government orchestrated McVeigh's conviction and the media's portrayal of McVeigh as a lone mad bomber who "wanted to destroy innocent lives for no reason other than a spontaneous joy in evildoing." Vidal also asserts that, in the government's story, McVeigh "had no serious accomplices" (see and ). Orchestrating the media response was not particularly difficult, he writes, as few in the mainstream press were particularly interested in why McVeigh carried out the bombing aside from the simple explanation that he was "evil incarnate." Any explanation of more complexity, Vidal writes, was dismissed as wild conspiracy theories. It was predictable, Vidal writes, that evidence pertinent to McVeigh's case was not provided until well after his conviction and sentencing , and that it would be largely ignored . Vidal recounts numerous instances where, when he began to attempt an explanation of McVeigh's obsession with the 1993 Branch Davidian conflagration and his belief that he was at war with the US government on a variety of news broadcasts, he was cut short by the hosts. According to Vidal, McVeigh was clear in his letters that the bombing was more than just, McVeigh wrote, "a simple act of 'revenge' for Waco," but "a strike against the US government," or more precisely, "a 'counter-attack' rather than a self-declared war." In one letter, he quoted pundit H.L. Mencken as writing, "Every normal man must be temped at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." Vidal recalls that he warned McVeigh that "Mencken often resorted to Swiftian hyperbole and was not to be taken too literally." He then speculates on the "interesting possibility," perhaps "the grandest conspiracy of all ... that he neither made nor set off the bomb outside the Murrah Building: it was only later, when facing either death or life imprisonment, that he saw to it that would be given sole credit for hoisting the black flag and slitting throats, to the rising fury of various 'militias' across the land who are currently outraged that he is getting sole credit for a revolutionary act organized, some say, by many others. At the end, if this scenario is correct, he and the detested Feds were of a single mind." Regardless of who carried out the bombing, Vidal writes, it is clear that "McVeigh himself was eager to commit what he called 'federally assisted suicide.'" Vidal quotes an interview with Dr. John Smith, a psychiatrist who interviewed McVeigh in prison and was then released from his oath of confidentiality by McVeigh to discuss his findings with reporters, who concluded that McVeigh was quite sane, and carried out the bombing both in revenge for the Waco assault and because "he also wanted to make a political statement about the role of the federal government and protest the use of force against the citizens." Smith found that McVeigh was disappointed that the media had refused to discuss what he considered "the misuse of power by the federal government" that impelled him to carry out the bombing. According to Smith, McVeigh told him, "I did not expect a revolution." He had had numerous discussions with some of the militia groups around Kingman, Arizona, Smith said, about how easy it would be to "cut Interstate 40 in two" and thereby disrupt the transportation between the eastern and western portions of the country, but those discussions, McVeigh told Smith, were "rather grandiose" and never acted upon. Vidal acknowledges that for three years before the bombing, McVeigh lived in the semi-underground world of the American militia movement. During that time, he came to believe, as many militia members did at the time, that the federal government planned on following up its assault weapons ban with a massive, nationwide raid on gun owners and militia members in the spring of 1995. Vidal writes, "This was all the trigger that McVeigh needed for what he would do--shuffled the deck, as it were." Vidal claims that McVeigh, unlike many militia members, had "no hang-ups about blacks, Jews, and all the other enemies of the various 'Aryan' white nations to be found in the Patriots' ranks." He was fascinated with the violently racist novel ''The Turner Diaries'' and ), he acknowledges, but only for its themes of individual Americans using guns and explosives to overthrow "the System." Smith bolstered Vidal's contention by reporting that McVeigh had insisted to him that he was not a racist nor a homophobe--"he made that very clear." Vidal quotes a 1998 essay McVeigh wrote for the right-wing publication Media Bypass, "Essay on Hypocrisy," that addressed his choice to blow up the Murrah Building, which contained a daycare center. The US, he wrote, set the precedent for bombing and killing civilians. When US military forces attack Iraqi government buildings with daycare centers or schools in them, McVeigh wrote, the media reported the children were being used as "shields" by the Iraqis. Vidal claims that no evidence exists that proves McVeigh knew about the presence of children in the Murrah Building, and repeats McVeigh's claims that he had no such foreknowledge. However, Vidal notes, the FBI knew about the children in the Branch Davidian compound, "and managed to kill 27 of them." In a final set of longhand notes McVeigh sent to Vidal in the weeks before his execution, McVeigh wrote: "I explain herein why I bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. I explain this not for publicity, nor seeking to win an argument of right or wrong, I explain so that the record is clear as to my thinking and motivations in bombing a government installation. I chose to bomb a Federal Building because such an action served more purposes than other options. Foremost, the bombing was a retaliatory strike: a counter-attack, for the cumulative raids (and subsequent violence and damage) that federal agents had participated in over the preceding years (including, but not limited to, Waco). From the formation of such units as the FBI's 'Hostage Rescue' and other assault teams amongst federal agencies during the 80s, culminating in the Waco incident, federal actions grew increasingly militaristic and violent, to the point where at Waco, our government--like the Chinese--was deploying tanks against its own citizens." The federal government has militarized the police, he wrote, and his bombing was designed as a "pre-emptive (or pro-active) strike against those forces and their command and control centers within the federal building. When an aggressor force continually launches attacks from a particular base of operations, it is sound military strategy to take the flight to the enemy. Additionally, borrowing a page from US foreign policy, I decided to send a message to a government that was becoming increasingly hostile, by bombing a government building and the government employees within that building who represent that government. Bombing the Murrah Federal Building was morally and strategically equivalent to the US hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations. Based on observations of the policies of my own government, I viewed this action as an acceptable option. From this perspective what occurred in Oklahoma City was no different than what Americans rain on the heads of others all the time, and, subsequently, my mindset was and is one of clinical detachment. (The bombing of the Murrah Building was not personal no more than when Air Force, Army, Navy, or Marine personnel bomb or launch cruise missiles against (foreign) government installations and their personnel.)" Vidal has previously written that McVeigh suffered from what he called "an exaggerated sense of justice," outraging many who read his words. He defends that characterization, and writes, "I knew that few Americans seriously believe that anyone is capable of doing anything except out of personal self-interest, while anyone who deliberately risks--and gives--his life to alert his fellow citizens to an onerous government is truly crazy." McVeigh's act may not have sparked a rebellion, Vidal writes, but it did presage an explosion of sorts in the number of citizens identifying themselves with the militia movement, many of whom joined local militia groups because they believed the government had orchestrated the bombing and then unjustly blamed McVeigh for it. Others believe that government agents planted bombs inside the Murrah Building set to go off when McVeigh's truck bomb detonated. Many believe that McVeigh was used by the government to perpetuate "state police power," similar to instances during the Vietnam War when "bogus Viet Cong units that were sent out to rape and murder Vietnamese to discredit the National Liberation Front," or when US forces pretended to "find" Communist arms dumps in El Salvador. Vidal repeats the tale that all 17 members of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) working in their Murrah Building office suspiciously failed to report to work on the day of the bombing, suggesting that they knew of the bombing in advance . Vidal then engages in a long and detailed attack on the evidence that shows McVeigh and his co-conspirator Terry Nichols built the bomb themselves. He believes that McVeigh and Nichols were involved in a complex and shadowy "plot involving militia types and government infiltrators--who knows?--as prime movers to create panic in order to get" President Clinton to enact the Anti-Terrorism Act, and cites research by journalist and author Joel Dyer, who in his own writings detailed his belief that the government downplayed McVeigh's militia affiliations to make a case that he was a quintessential and possibly deranged "lone bomber." Dyer and Vidal both cite the poor defense put on by McVeigh's trial lawyer, Stephen Jones, who, Dyer contended, "often left the jury more confused and bored than convinced of his client's innocence. Even when he succeeded in his attempts to demonstrate that a large conspiracy was behind the bombing, he did little to show that McVeigh was not at the center of the conspiracy. Jones's case led some reporters to speculate that McVeigh himself was limiting his own defense in order to prevent evidence that might implicate others in the bombing from entering the record." McVeigh did indeed confess to the bombing to his defense lawyers and, later, to Vidal, but, Vidal writes, "I believe that by confessing McVeigh was, once again, playing the soldier, attempting to protect his co-conspirators." Vidal writes that his own research has unearthed a number of militia members who may have played a part in the April 19 bombing, and a systematic effort by the FBI and the McVeigh prosecution team to quash any evidence of that sort during McVeigh's trial. He also challenges the government's assertion that the reports of a third co-conspirator, "John Doe No. 2," was a US Army private with no connection to McVeigh or the bombing . Instead, he writes, that person was likely a well-known militia member in Shawnee County, Kansas, and possibly a member of the separatist Republic of Texas organization. He cites a book on the bombing by former journalist David Hoffman, who was convicted of trying to tamper with the McVeigh jury , as being "the most thorough of a dozen or two accounts of what did and did not happen on that day in April." Like Vidal, Hoffman does not believe that McVeigh's truck bomb could have caused the damage inflicted on the Murrah Building, and cites a number of military and government experts who make the same contentions, even citing one report that claims the "five separate bombs" used in the explosion "have a Middle Eastern 'signature,' pointing to either Iraqi or Syrian involvement" . Vidal notes that the search for bodies in the destroyed building was halted after 16 days , against the wishes of those who wanted to continue attempting to search for more evidence in the bomb site. Six days later the building was demolished , leading one critic, retired Air Force Brigadier General Benton K. Partin, to declare that the building was demolished as "a classic cover-up" executed by Communist agents. Vidal writes of Partin's belief that Communists orchestrated the cover-up, "Well, nobody's perfect." (Vidal errs in his "six day" claim; the building was demolished 19 days later.) Vidal writes: "In the end, McVeigh, already condemned to death, decided to take full credit for the bombing. Was he being a good professional soldier, covering up for others? Or did he, perhaps, now see himself in a historic role with his own private Harper's Ferry, and though his ashes molder in the grave, his spirit is marching on? We may know--one day." mtuck 2013-02-26T17:25:09+01:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a113004nicholsadmit#a113004nicholsadmit http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a113004nicholsadmit#a113004nicholsadmit The press reports that Terry Nichols, convicted on federal and state charges surrounding the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing (see and ), admitted to his involvement in the conspiracy to blow up the Murrah Federal Building during secret plea negotiations in 2003. Presumably these were the negotiations where prosecutors ultimately rejected an offer by Nichols's lawyers for Nichols to plead "no content" to the 161 charges of first-degree murder in return for being spared the death penalty . Nichols signed a statement acknowledging helping bomber Timothy McVeigh (see and ) construct the bomb, though he denied having any prior knowledge of the target or knowing any other co-conspirators . Prosecutors now say they never believed Nichols was being entirely truthful in his plea offer. mtuck 2013-02-25T18:56:39+01:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a032204nicholsbegin#a032204nicholsbegin http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a032204nicholsbegin#a032204nicholsbegin Lawyers make their opening statements in the trial of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols , charged with 161 counts of first-degree murder in the bombing. Nichols is already serving a life sentence from a conviction in federal court . Assistant District Attorney Lou Keel calls Nichols and executed Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh "partners in terror," and tells of a plethora of evidence joining the two in the conspiracy to destroy the Murrah Federal Building . Lead defense lawyer Brian T. Hermanson says that Nichols was the victim of "manipulation" and "betrayal" by his friend McVeigh. The prosecution seems to be following a similar path as that taken in Nichols's federal trial, but Nichols's defense is trying to raise new doubts about others possibly involved in the conspiracy , including questioning the existence and identity of the infamous "John Doe No. 2," a purported fellow conspirator who was never caught and whom the FBI has said never existed . Judge Steven Taylor excoriates the prosecution for its "inexcusable conduct" in withholding an impropriety in jury selection, saying that the impropriety might cause a mistrial later in the case. Taylor says the Oklahoma County District Attorney's office failed to inform the court until the jury was already chosen that among the 12 jurors and six alternates were three relatives of a prosecutor with local roots who had worked on jury selection. "The court cannot imagine why the prosecutors affirmatively chose not to reveal this information during the jury selection," Taylor says, blaming prosecutor George Burnett for the lapse. Burnett, Taylor says, knew in early March that he was related to three or four people in the 357-member jury pool, but continued to participate in the process of jury selection that included three of his relatives. At that point, Burnett told his fellow prosecutors, but no one told Taylor until March 12, the day after the jury was selected and the process closed. The jurors bear no blame in the matter, Taylor says. He dismissed the three jurors in question, leaving only three alternates. If the jurors should fall below the requisite dozen, he warns, "the trial will not end in a mistrial, it will end in a dismissal with prejudice," meaning Nichols cannot be retried on the charges. Prosecutors do not respond in court to Taylor's admonishment, and say nothing to reporters, as Taylor has barred both sides from speaking to reporters about the case. mtuck 2013-02-25T18:55:47+01:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a031604tigarchorus#a031604tigarchorus http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a031604tigarchorus#a031604tigarchorus Michael E. Tigar, the former lead attorney for convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols who now faces a state trial on 161 counts of first-degree murder , joins Nichols's current defense team in speculating that the bombing may have been carried out by a larger group of white supremacists, of which Nichols was only a minor member and perhaps little more than a scapegoat. While prosecutors say they have "an avalanche of evidence" showing Nichols's heavy involvement, defense lawyers led by Brian T. Hermanson say that Nichols and his cohort, convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh , were part of the purported larger conspiracy. McVeigh, Hermanson argues, "conspired with others whose identities are still unknown" and "orchestrated various events and evidence so as to make it appear that Mr. Nichols was involved and, thereby, direct attention away from others." Some evidence exists of McVeigh's involvement with the violent white supremacist group Aryan Republican Army (ARA--see and ) and it is possible that McVeigh took part in bank robberies the group carried out. Tigar says, "Is it too bad they killed Tim?" referring to McVeigh's execution . "If they really wanted to find out what happened, maybe some of the revelations, now that the cover is blown, maybe he would have talked. Who knows?" Tigar seems to be implying that the government executed McVeigh to ensure his silence, a conclusion prosecutors dispute. Prosecutors say they have given the defense all exculpatory evidence, and that they can indisputably prove Nichols's guilt. Assistant Oklahoma County District Attorney Sandra H. Elliott says, "Whether or not anybody else is involved, we can prove Mr. Nichols is." Mark S. Hamm, a criminology professor who has written about the ARA, says: "The preponderance of evidence points to the fact that McVeigh had some sort of ongoing relationship with members of the ARA. [But t]here's no smoking gun here." Stephen Jones, who represented McVeigh during his trial , says: "Where the Nichols defense clearly wants to go is to try for an acquittal or hung jury using material the government withheld." If successful, the Nichols lawyers will try to get Nichols's federal conviction reversed. However, "it has to succeed in [these proceedings] first." mtuck 2013-02-25T18:54:47+01:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a030104nicholstrial#a030104nicholstrial http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a030104nicholstrial#a030104nicholstrial The trial of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols begins in McAlester, Oklahoma, with the trial judge, Steven Taylor, ruling that the trial will not be delayed because of allegations that the prosecution withheld documents from the defense . Nichols faces 161 counts of first-degree murder, and could receive the death penalty if convicted. Taylor warns prosecutors that any withholding of evidence by prosecutors or the Justice Department would void the case entirely, saying: "There will not be a mistrial. There will be a dismissal, period." Taylor says, "It would be irresponsible for this court to shut down this trial today based on speculation and guesswork what the FBI can come up with." The defense intends to argue that Nichols was just one small cog in a much larger conspiracy involving convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh and an undetermined number of unnamed accomplices, perhaps American white supremacists or Middle Eastern radicals; defense lawyer Barbara Bergman tries and fails for a delay, telling Taylor: "Everywhere we turn we are being stymied by the federal government, your honor. It's outrageous. Why is the federal government so afraid?" Taylor says he will allow the defense considerable leeway in questioning government witnesses: "Some call a trial a search for truth. If the FBI thinks it important to search for truth while we're conducting this trial, then they should cooperate with the search for truth in this courtroom." The jury has not yet been seated, and lawyers will not give their opening arguments for at least a week. Brian T. Hermanson is Nichols's lead lawyer; Lou Keel leads the prosecution. mtuck 2013-02-25T18:48:27+01:00