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| from his book Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace Once our media has invented a cartoon image for a national villain or hero, it does not take a benign view of anyone who contradicts its version. My reasonably mild analysis of McVeigh was interpreted as approval of the bombing at Oklahoma city and I was said to have hailed him as a "freedom fighter," a phrase, as you have seen, that I never used. I thought it was obvious that I agreed with the examining psychiatrist who said,"Had there been no Waco, there would have been no Oklahoma City." Therefore, the truth-seeker should concentrate on the various elements that led up to the federal massacre at Waco on the ground that whatever the Federal government does it does in the name of all of us. What McVeigh did he did on his own for reasons well worth understanding since he appears to represent, in many ways, millions of heartland Americans. In the original article I quote Joel Dyer at greater length than? I do now. He had spent years following up on leads to potential coconspirators with McVeigh. There was even a potential Iraqi connection in Oklahoma City, which might have well brought roses to the cheeks of our right-wing activists, eager for a war with Iraq as well as Iran, Somalia, and just about any Islamic nation that does not obey us. In any case, I have now left out all those leads not followed by the FBI on the ground that the spoor, as Tarzan used to say, grows, with passing time, ever more faint. But at the time Dyer and I were ready to share or findings, no matter how unwanted, with the FBI. The mysterious Louis Freeh had left as director and his place was taken by R.S. Mueller, for whom I prepared the following letter, which I read on NBC's Today Show, leaving out the names of those who had given leads, but including the document numbers of the FBI reports collected by Dyer during various discovery court hearings. August 27, 2001 The Honorable Robert S. Mueller III, Director-Designate Federal Bureau of Investigation J.Edgar Hoover Building 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20535-0001 Dear Director-Designate Mueller: Congratulations on your recent appointment as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. If recent news reports are to be believed, it seems your first priority is to restore the tattered image of the Freeh-based bureau. We see you as Shane come to town. With that in mind, might I suggest a bona fide investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing? To that worthy end, I am providing you a list of"302" reports from the bureau's alleged "investigation" that I hope you will find more interesting than did your predecessor Mr. Louis Freeh. DCNO 005290001-1 DCNO 004623001-1 DCNO 016598001-1 DCNO 004622001-1 DCNO 004412001-1 Russell Roe DCNO#-illegible DCNO 004613001-1 DCNO 016417001-1 DCNO 007936001-1 DCNO 006333001-1 DCNO 008597001-1 DCNO 015040001-1 DCNO 015830001-1 DCNO 015042001-1 DCNO 016016001-1 DCNO 015039001-1 DCNO 007986001-1 DCNO 015041001-1 Lead # 15004 DCNO#-illegible Upon review, you will find that these 19 "302" reports were generated as a result of your organization's interviews with Kansas law enforcement personnel, eyewitnesses, confidential informants, militia members, etc. Collectively, they contain information regarding, among other things, four men, resident in East Kansas at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing, who were well-known anti-U.S. government radicals. Let me briefly summarize the contests of these documents. In the first series of documents is a report of perhaps the only eyewitness to actual assemblage of the bombing components.. He was present, on or about April 17, 1995 at Geary Lake and identified one man and others unknown who were offloading fertilizer from a farm truck to a the Ryder truck. The second set or reports deals with a man who was overheard, several weeks prior to the bombing, saying that "Someone is going to smoke some Okies-wait till Timmy does his job." It is also noted that this same individual had suggested committing numerous acts of Terrorism-both prior to and subsequent to the OKC-bombing. In fact, your agency later arrested him for one such plot. Let us hope they will tell you about it. A third group of "302"s describes in detail a man said to be a dangerous, government-hating radical thought to have exploded fertilizer bombs on his remote Kansas property prior to the fertilizer-bomb explosion in Oklahoma City. you should have no trouble locating information on this individual, as your agency has had many unusual dealings with him over the years. In an effort to save you valuable time, as I am sure you are quite busy cleaning up after Mr. Freeh, please be aware that if you simply request this individual's file by the original number assigned by the F.B.I. (W924376484), you may encounter difficulty in locating it because, I've been told, this file number was mysteriously reassigned to an unrelated case in New Jersey and that new numbers have been issued for the Kansas files. What, one wonders does that mean? The last set of reports contains information from Kansas law enforcement, describing an anti-government radical living in the same small town as Terry Nichols, McVeigh's only named co-conspirator. You will also find his name on the Posse Comitatus videotapes seized by the F.B.I. at the Nichols's brother's farm in Michigan. I believe a the seized tapes describe him as a close personal friend of the Posse leader whose phone number was in Mr.Nichols wallet at the time of his arrest. But then again, perhaps these two likeminded friends of a friend never stumbled across one another in a town whose population is 636. In addition to the above information, these reports also indicate that these men had ties to both the Michigan Militia and the Arizona Patriots, two anti-government organizations with which Mr. McVeigh associated prior to the bombing. Here are my concerns and, I suspect the concerns of every thoughtful American. Based upon an examination of the evidence turned over during the discovery process and trial, it appears that the F.B.I., despite the quality of the leads I've set forth above, never actually bothered to pursue the information provided in any substantive manner. The men in question were not interviewed, not even the obligatory "where were you on April 19?" phone call. In fact, they were not investigated in any manner whatsoever, no vehicle registration checks, nothing, By the way, I think you would find the vehicle quite interesting. Had the above leads been investigated in even a cursory manner. the FBI would have learned that all four men were closely associated in the same radical anti-government action. I'm Sure you will agree that such a connection between these overlooked leads might tell us who did what that cruel April day. In addition, as set out in my recent article in Vanity Fair, the name of at least one other person associated with this same organization was given to the F.B.I. by three different persons, yet there were no "302" reports concerning the three and no information whatsoever on the subject in the discovery materials turned over by the government. I cannot say with certainty that these men were opart of the bombing plot that left 168 innocent people dead. It would have been impossible to reach such a bold conclusion in light of the F.B.I.'s failure to even investigate such a possibility. I am simply pointing out that the government's ongoing insistence that it "followed every lead" and that there is "no credible evidence that others were involved" is not based on the evidence, but rather on the F.B.I.'s increasingly jittery public relations department. The evidence turned over thus far in this case suggests an indifference to the very notion of justice that goes quite beyond the bureau's eerie incompetence. To be generous, I suspect that the bureau did pursue more leads than it has ever let on, so, as Senator Danforth suggested before McVeigh's execution: after the execution there will be some box found, somewhere, containing evidence that was withheld from McVeigh's defense attorneys. Now that McVeigh has already been injected into a better world, I am sure that the bureau's choice of explanation to my inquiry will be a difficult one. Was it an incompetent investigation, as this trail of ignored leads would suggest? Or is is something even more sinister, a case of withholding evidence during discovery, which is a criminal act? Either way, I believe that the American people, particularly those most affected by the murderous bombing, deserve an explanation. Please reply at your earliest convenience. Sincerely, Gore Vidal Care of Vanity Fair4 Times Square, 22nd Floor New York, NY 10036 For those readers now hanging from what Alfalfa Bill Murray used to call "tender-hooks," what did the Director-Designate reply? Nothing. Also, as far as anyone can tell, the Lee Harvey Oswald scenario has played out yet again. I will say that when I was questioned on NBC--why did i bring this up and so add to the unique suffering of the Oklahomans?--I said I bring it up to save them and the rest of the country from further suffering because potential enemies of the United States are still at large and they are certain to strike at us again. I was not sufficiently prescient to say that some, even as I spoke, were studyong in Oklahoma on how to maneuver aircraft in the air without first taking off. Finally, McVeigh spoke to me from the grave. I received a note from Eric F. Magsuson, director of the World Liberation Order. On May 21, 2001, Mr. Magnuson wrote McVeigh on Death Row asking him what changes he would make in the way the United States administers itself. McVeigh duly responded with ten additions to the ten amendments that comprise our Bill of Rights. Here they are, preceded by Mr. Magnuson's position on the matter: |
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