The OKC Bombing thread: Surveillance Camera Footage

[Richard Booth]

Sorry to be so long winded with so many replies. I just thought of a couple sources that might be worth looking at.

1. Simple Truths' written by Jon Hersley and Larry Tongate
https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Truths-Okl...1885596413

This is a book that essentially tells the FBI's sanitized version of the investigation: McVeigh and Nichols built the bomb on 4/18, McVeigh drove to OKC the next day by himself and delivered it.

Of course, this is not the truth. Dozens upon dozens of people saw Timothy McVeigh in OKC on April 19th and every single one of them saw him with another person. So I have not bothered to read Simple Truths because I know it will be an exercise in omissions. The story presented in it will be in spite of the evidence not because of it.

I plan to buy a copy, eventually, so I can produce a write-up on the book--like was done w/ Gerald Posner's book 'Case Closed' and as was done by Jim DiEugenio on Bugliosi's book.

It is notable that one of the agents who wrote the book, Jon Hersley, was an agent who was always dispatched to browbeat witnesses. If a witness was a problem to the FBI, had an account that didn't 'fit' their narrative, they'd send Hersley in to conduct a hostile interview. Hersley is also the guy who always gets quoted by news media when discussing the case--Hersley is the P.R. man for the bureau regarding the Oklahoma City Bombing, he can be relied upon to provide quotes supportive of the Bureau and dismissive of anything that doesn't fit with their narrative. He was interviewed extensively in a 2007 BBC production on the bombing (which was very good.)

The last thing I have to say about Simple Truths:

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."
--Oscar Wilde

2. No Heroes by Danny Coulson:
https://www.amazon.com/No-Heroes-Inside-...671020617/

This book is a memoir by Coulson and does not focus exclusively on the OKC bombing, but it is possible worth parsing to see what Coulson has to say about the investigation.

I have not read this book, except for a small section. There is a section in the book where Coulson says that he refused to be interviewed by FBI agents, producing 302 reports, relating to an investigation (Ruby Ridge) because he knew that FBI agents will omit details or otherwise produce false information in 302 reports. Coulson stated that he would submit notarized affidavits outlining his answers to questions or any statements rather than submit to an interview that produces a slanted 302 report by one of Louis Freeh's sycophants.

So, I have read that section of the book as it relates to a practice I have found is really endemic in the FBI and that is how they refuse to record interviews and instead take notes and then the FBI agent, sometimes days or weeks later, will produce his written version of the interview in an FD-302. The weakness in this, of course, is that the agent producing the 302 can omit whatever details he wants, and can make things up if he wants to. It relies on the 'honor' system and in the FBI the prevailing notion is "agents never lie" and "agents never make mistakes" so they think this honor system is appropriate. Of course, it is not appropriate, and the FBI should instead record all interviews on tape and have those recordings transcribed and have that put into a 302 report.

So, these are two sources that are both written by FBI agents and probably do speak to elements of the investigation.

Some comments on my area of expertise:

My primary focus on OKC is witnesses--what the witnesses all saw. So in that respect I have gathered a large amount of FBI 302 reports and other things (transcripts of testimony at trial, transcripts of grand jury proceedings) that relate directly to the eyewitnesses. The chapter in my book detailing in chronological order what the witnesses saw is 80 pages long, so you can see that this is my primary area of focus.

Here is quote about the investigation by Danny Coulson from 2004:

"There are some unanswered questions here. A lot of things happened that were inappropriate." Coulson said. "I think it needs to be reopened, but I don't think it should be reopened by the FBI. It needs to be a special investigator, a lawyer, totally independent. He needs to have subpoena power and the ability to use a grand jury"



Here is another quote from Coulson from a few years later, 2007:

"We have victims here and we have victims' families and we don't even know the answers. And the answer is frankly for a federal grand jury."

"It wasn't until after I had left the investigation, some months later, that I know FBI headquarters told them to close down the investigation in Elohim City which has some very significant connections to Mr McVeigh and previous bombing attempts. Never in my career did I have FBI headquarters tell me not to investigate something"

Then the report has agent Jon Hersley quoted (surprise surprise), towing the FBI company line:

"There was none of that whatsoever. In fact, in this investigation I feel like we uncovered more rocks than have ever been uncovered in the history of the FBI and at times we over-investigated parts of the case."

--Richard

Some documents relative to things I have talked about here:

SA Ricardo Ojeda's affidavit
re: obstruction at FBI, putting investigations into the 'zero file' to bury them
https://app.box.com/s/w8j4nmg381jwp31pchfco4vig6ife00l

April 15th, 1997 memo from Roger Charles to Stephen Jones & defense team
re: SA Ojeda's information that the FBI dispatched pairs of agents to prevent certain witnesses from being interviewed
https://app.box.com/s/dkgho9jpflee9jxm2dpxdjt3nxn38m81

2007_03_02-BBC_News-Call_to_Reopen_Bomb_Case_[Coulson_and_Hersley_comments].pdf
Has Coulson and Hersley's comments on the case
https://app.box.com/s/jan5dy0ibzfkojjzkasyv2ja9g5948ob

2004_02_26-Bangor_Daily_News-Documents_FBI_ignored_McVeigh-supremacists_link_[ARA_Coulson]-SCAN.pdf
Coulson again comments on the case
https://app.box.com/s/6rwlalgnbp2tjzzh17y4snzwkuegnxpa

2004_02_26-Arizona_Daily_Star-FBI_destroyed_evidence_that_may_have_tied_McVeigh,_Aryan_robbers-[ARA,_Langan,_Coulson,_Defenbaugh]-OCR.pdf
Coulson and Defenbaugh comment on the case
https://app.box.com/s/yispkhzfotdpa4mx6imgt3tcj18g7vj9