The OKC Bombing thread: Surveillance Camera Footage

[Richard Booth]

Here are some news reports from my archive that relate to the FBI's bombing investigation.

I have many, many news clippings on this case, and there are not many that deal specifically with FBI personnel.

Having said that, there are a few that relate to Larry Potts.

• LOUIS FREEH was at the very top of the OKBOMB investigation, micro-managing the case.
  
• FREEH appointed LARRY POTTS to oversee the bombing investigation from headquarters
  
• POTTS had previously overseen the FBI's operations at both the WACO and RUBY RIDGE standoffs
  

Here are the clippings I have that relate to Potts:

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Blast Probe Head Named to No. 2 FBI Post
PDF: https://app.box.com/s/4yh1pp7d5nlsey41rx7gty5pdqxkh1ca
The Los Angeles Times | 3 May 1995, Wed | Page 4


"The veteran official who has directed the Oklahoma City bombing investigation--but who was censured recently for his role in a controversial shootout with separatists in Idaho--was named the FBI's second-ranking official Tuesday."


"It is because Larry Potts has such great skills that I placed him in personal charge of the FBI's priority investigation into the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City," Freeh said Tuesday.


"He has been in the command center at FBI headquarters in Washington every day since the bombing, directing all aspects of our investigation."


Deputy FBI Director Demoted Over Idaho Controversy
PDF: https://app.box.com/s/inbdnv54addy65yqactmlcvusz70vej7
Austin-American Statesman | 15 July 1995 | Page A11

"Under pressure from Congress, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh removed his friend Larry Potts as the bureau's No. 2 official Friday because of growing controversy over Potts' role in a deadly 1992 FBI siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.

"Both the Idaho and Waco incidents were managed from FBI headquarters by Potts while he was an assistant director of the FBI."

"The demotion of Potts came only two days after it was disclosed that a ranking FBI official had admitted destroying a document describing the Idaho action against armed white separatist Randy Weaver, a siege that left Weaver's wife dead. She was shot by an FBI sniper."

"The destroyed document dealt in part with whether Potts, before the unarmed woman was killed, had approved changes to the "rules of engagement" allowing agents more freedom to fire their weapons.

The official who admitted destroying the document, Michael Kahoe, was placed on leave Tuesday from his post as special agent in charge of the FBI's Jacksonville, Fla., office.

Potts has denied approving the change in the rules of engagement, but two other FBI officials, who received heavier punishment, have sworn that he did, sources close to the investigation said. One of the two officials, Eugene Glenn -- whose role in the Idaho siege led to his removal as special agent in charge of the FBI's Salt Lake City office -- complained that the investigation was a cover-up. His complaint has prompted the Justice Department's office of professional responsibility to reopen it's investigation"

Nichols claims FBI official directed bombing
PDF: https://app.box.com/s/mt2vi5g35l3dug4qr81u6rw4t02ef9gy
Daily Oklahoman | 22 Feb 2007

Terry Nichols, 51, claims an angry McVeigh identified Larry Potts as the high-ranking FBI official "who was apparently directing McVeigh in the bomb plot."

Nichols claims McVeigh was upset because the official had changed the target.

"It's just nonsense and ridiculous," said Potts, a former deputy director, the No. 2 position at the FBI.


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I do not believe that Timothy McVeigh ever, at any time, identified Larry Potts as someone who was directing him.

This is Terry Nichols just saying something to try to hurt the FBI, I think.

Terry Nichols knows that Larry Potts was a chief official in charge at both Waco and Ruby Ridge, and he's got this axe to grind there, so he's naming this guy claiming the OKC bombing was some kind of FBI plot with Larry Potts at the top. That, to me, is not credible. It's ridiculous.

I do believe it to be possible that informants within the FBI's PATCON ('Patriot Conspiracy') operation might have had contact with McVeigh at a white separatist community called Elohim City. But CWs or CIs making contact with McVeigh is a far cry from "he's taking orders from Larry Potts."

I don't know if Potts was in a position to be involved in the FBI's PATCON program but I do know that Danny Coulson would have been aware of PATCON. Coulson was on a committee at the FBI that oversaw approval for various major case undercover operations and PATCON would have been one of the operations he would review and make determinations as to whether to extend funding and so forth.

So, to me, the question I would ask with Larry Potts would be: did he know about or have any hand in PATCON?
And a follow-up question would be: did any PATCON informants or undercover operatives have contact with McVeigh?