August 4, 2000
Dear Newswatch Magazine Listeners/Readers:
Stephen Jones of Oklahoma was the lead defense attorney in the case of U.S. vs. Timothy McVeigh and Others Unknown. This was the case involving the Oklahoma City bombing - one of the worst cases of terrorism in American history. Mr. Jones was asked to replace two lawyers that had been assigned to the case as sort of "public defenders." When he was introduced to these two lawyers, Susan Otto and John Coyle, they told him that if he took the case - "When you know everything I know Stephen, and you will soon enough, you will NEVER think of the United States of America again the same way." Mr. Jones wanted to know WHY our own government fought so long and so hard to keep so many of these facts from ever being aired.
There were numerous eye-witnesses of men of Middle East extraction close around the Murrah Federal Building before the bombing. The very first FBI take on the case was Middle Easterners. But the moment the FBI found Tim McVeigh, the nation heard NOTHING further about the Middle East.
Little did the nation know that the FBI was also looking into a German national named Andreas Strassmeir who had connections with a place called Elohim City, Oklahoma.
Mr. Stephen Jones also did not know that a phone call was made from Saudi Arabia on April 19th by a general in Saudi intelligence to the former CIA chief of operations for counterterrorism. The federal government was not about to let the defense know that it had first hand information of the possibility of this Middle East connection that would have eliminated the guilt of the only person they had in custody. NONE OF THIS WAS LEAKED TO THE MEDIA! NOT A WORD!
As far as anyone knew - including the defense attorneys and the media - it was a "done deal." Timothy McVeigh was guilty; BUT the more the defense team delved into the actual proof, they found mountains of lies and tampering with witnesses by the federal government. The federal government would drag out requests or court orders to turn over certain evidence for month after month, so the defense would have little to no time to search through it properly.
Jones said the more he read, the more he realized the enormous authority that the federal government and its agencies carry in our land. Everywhere he turned, it was clear in the eyes of the government, the media, and the nation, that the case against his client was overwhelming. He was already convicted, and he had never had his day in court.
Before Mr. Jones took the case, the government [FBI in this case] paraded Tim McVeigh in front of the cameras at the Perry courthouse in Oklahoma. The FBI had weeks head-start in collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses and convincing witnesses to change their testimony of WHO they saw. The FBI had convinced the news media it had an open and shut case when in reality they had NO evidence that would convict anyone in court.
When the time of the trial came, the federal government prosecution team paraded victim after victim before the jury telling of their horror story or the loss of loved ones. The judge warned them time after time NOT to use emotionalism - which is forbidden in a trial - but stay with the facts. The FBI could not truthfully stay with facts. Everything they could present was far out circumstantial evidence.
There were between 50-70 eye-witnesses that described the man who rented the Ryder truck as 5'10" and of a stocky build instead of 6'3" and skinny as a pencil which McVeigh was. By the time the FBI talked with each witness in private, they changed their description. HOW CONVENIENT!!!
What became so puzzling was that the federal government did not call one witness to the stand that could place McVeigh FOR 100% SURE, at the Ryder rental office, the motel, or the Murrah Building. Yet, there were scores of witnesses that identified Middle Eastern men, possibly four of them and a short stocky person, UNTIL the FBI talked with each in private.
After the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had botched two previous raids, WACO and Ruby Ridge, their own offices in the Murrah Building were curiously nearly empty that day in 1995.
The defense attorneys found that EVERY argument the federal government put forth had MAJOR inconsistencies in them. This never changed and the government's charge that McVeigh remained the centerpiece of the detonator of the bomb was reinforced through the media. The media accused him, at various times, of being a racist, a skinhead, and neo-Nazi, although there was NO evidence to support any of these claims. He was accused by the media based upon calculated leaks and innuendoes FROM law enforcement.
Part of the lawyer's creed is to investigate the FACTS of a case independently and thoroughly. It is not enough, under this rule, for the lawyer to take the client's word for what happened - he must find out for himself. The obligation of the prosecution to share results of its discovery WITH the defense may have been the law in the United States for almost forty years, but it has NEVER BEEN SO ABUSED as in the Oklahoma bombing findings. If the defense attorneys had relied on the government to disclose its findings, Tim McVeigh would have been totally defenseless.
Is this a pattern that has grown in America as we see the federal government becoming more centralized in the exact OPPOSITE way our government was formed?
Sincerely,
David J. Smith