A 500-page report written by an investigative committee on the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, Okla., is set to be released this month, the head of the project tells WorldNetDaily.
Charles Key, a former Oklahoma state representative and head of the Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee, said the report contains volumes of evidence citing inconsistencies and omissions in the government's official version of events.
Damage to Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, April 19, 1995.
Key, who left the state legislature in 1998, said he hopes the report will help Americans finally "get to the truth" about the bombing just weeks before one of the prime suspects, Timothy McVeigh, is to be executed in Terre Haute, Ind., for his role in the attack.
McVeigh was convicted in 1997, the same year as his accomplice, Terry Nichols. Nichols received a life sentence from a federal court in Denver, but still faces charges in Oklahoma, where he could receive the death penalty if convicted.
"The purpose of our report is to document the truth," Key told WorldNetDaily. "We, as so many others do, believe that facts regarding other perpetrators, prior knowledge, and the number of explosive devices used to damage the Murrah Building has been concealed."
Key said that when he began his investigation he hoped to accomplish three main tasks: empanel an Oklahoma grand jury to look into the bombing; lobby Congress to hold open hearings on the bombing and the government's handling of the case afterwards; and finally, produce a comprehensive report about his findings.
"Most of that was accomplished," Key said, noting that several congressmen, on his six trips to Washington, D.C., had urged him to put his findings in a final report.
Prior government knowledge
Though the Justice Department has vehemently denied that federal law enforcement officials knew anything about the attack before it happened, Key's committee found what members believe is substantial evidence proving otherwise.
First, the report documents that two of the government's own informants had warned federal officials of "possible terrorist attacks in the United States," but that neither of these witnesses were allowed to testify in the federal trials surrounding the case.
Also, two informants affiliated with organizations in foreign countries issued terrorist warnings to the U.S., the report says. And, the committee found evidence that officials from four government agencies "were notified to be on the alert for possible attacks against individuals, federal institutions, or the public at large. ..."
Of those four agencies, two of them -- the U.S. Marshals' office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- were actually officed in the Murrah Building. In addition, the Oklahoma City Fire Department was warned by the FBI, says the report. And Federal Judge Wayne Alley admitted in an interview the day of the bombing (published in the Portland Oregonian, April 20, 1995) that he also had been told to be on the alert for a possible bombing.
Five witnesses who spoke to Key and his committee said they talked to federal officials who in turn claimed that no Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents were in the building at the time of the bombing.
And another five witnesses said they saw bomb-squad vehicles in downtown Oklahoma City shortly before the blast went off at just after 9 a.m.
McVeigh … and others?
Key said his committee found "over 70 witnesses" who said they saw McVeigh "and one or more 'John Does'" in the days before -- and on the day of -- the bombing.
After the blast, said the committee in its report, about 40 witnesses came forward in response to FBI composite drawings of "John Doe 1" and "John Doe 2," thought to be of Middle Eastern descent.
Many of these witnesses notified federal authorities "about seeing McVeigh with one or more John Does," the report said.
How many bombs?
The Key committee talked to a number of witnesses who were in the Murrah building at the time of the blast who said they felt it "shaking before the bombing and assumed it was an earthquake," suggesting that there was another blast before the truck bomb went off in front of the building that was ultimately blamed for all of the damage.
Some of those witnesses told the committee they owed their survival "to having had time to seek protection under their desks just before the [truck] bomb exploded," the report said.
Also, the committee obtained seismologic evidence from an expert source that "supports the fact that there were multiple explosions" that morning. But, as was the case with other witnesses, the expert "was not allowed to testify at the federal trials," the report says.
The committee noted that estimates of the size of the ammonium nitrate-fuel oil ("ANFO") truck bomb changed frequently, but officials eventually said the bomb was 4,800 pounds. "This finding was calculated on incorrect measurements of the crater" left in front of the Murrah building, the report said, "rather than on forensic evidence."
The committee's report also documents "at least four sightings of [additional] bombs inside the building," which were reported by witnesses and local news agencies, as WND documented in an April 23 story.
The sightings, the report said, resulted "in rescue personnel being evacuated from the building, leaving behind the injured and dying" victims.
None of the five experts in munitions and explosives, whose reports all concluded that no ANFO bomb of any size could have caused the type and extent of damage at the Murrah building, were allowed to testify at the federal trials, Key's group documented in its report.
Feds knew of others besides McVeigh
Though only McVeigh and Nichols were arrested, tried and convicted for their roles in the bombing, the Key committee found that the federal government knew that others were involved, despite official denials.
The committee found that "in addition to McVeigh and Nichols," suspects listed as "others unknown" were also named "in indictments … in both federal trials."
The report said McVeigh was reported by witnesses to have been in the company of "several Middle-Eastern [persons] in the downtown area shortly before the bombing," and that Nichols "frequently visited the Philippines, where it is possible that he developed connections with Middle Eastern terrorists."
Corroborating this, Jayna Davis -- a former investigative reporter for Oklahoma City television station KFOR -- told Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" on March 20 that Nichols may have been in contact with associates of Saudi billionaire terrorist Osama bin Laden in the Philippines. "Davis also points to court records offered in the Nichols defense that suggest he had contacts with a member of bin Laden's terrorist organization in the Philippines prior to the bombing," WND reported, based on excerpts of Davis' interview with the show's host and WND columnist Bill O'Reilly.
McVeigh, she said, was also in the company of Mideastern men shortly before the bombing, one of whom was a former member of Iraq's elite Republican Guard army corps.
As Davis noted, the Key committee also said that shortly after the bombing, an "all-points-bulletin" was issued by authorities for a man of Mideastern descent who had been spotted with McVeigh in the Ryder rental truck containing the bomb.
But both Davis and Key's committee said the APB was rescinded later in the day "without explanation," and, the Key report noted, "federal law enforcement officials subsequently denied that there was involvement by anyone other than McVeigh and Nichols."
Federal court, law enforcement failures
The committee's report also detailed failures by federal law and court officials -- before, during and after the bombing.
"There is sufficient evidence to confirm that law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma City, as well as Washington, D.C., had sufficient prior knowledge of the impending disaster, yet took minimum measures to avert the bombing," the report said. "Documents and witnesses support this conclusion."
Also, the report said the "FBI quashed reports of explosive devices found in the … building and reports showing that the ATF [was] unlawfully storing explosives inside."
The committee said the FBI also refused to allow Federal Emergency Management Agency officials access to the building to conduct their portion of the investigation, and that the FBI failed to run checks "on over one thousand fingerprints that were obtained in this case."
In the aftermath of the bombing, when federal and state grand juries were convened to examine evidence, Key and his committee said "blatant bias against anyone asking questions or probing into facts was evident. ..."
"Virtually all of the rules governing grand juries were broken," the report says.
Conclusions
The report concludes that the Clinton administration's law enforcement agencies and officials "had prior knowledge of the bombing," and that "McVeigh and Nichols did not act alone."
Also, Key's committee said government informants were not allowed to present testimony at the federal trials, and "critical scientific evidence" was never presented in either McVeigh's or Nichols' trials.
"The final report represents years of extensive investigation and countless interviews," Keys said. "It contains information never reported before in any forum."