Lawmaker mulls re-examination of Oklahoma City bombing
House International Relations Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., might open another investigation into the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City.
Rohrabacher wants to look into long-standing allegations that Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for exploding the bomb, and Terry Nichols, who is serving a life sentence for helping him, were not alone in the plot and that federal officials participated in a cover-up.
Rohrabacher's spokeswoman would not give a time frame for hearings or an investigation, saying he is "looking at the evidence. If it warrants a hearing, he will go forward; if not, he won't."
Rohrabacher has discussed his plan with former Oklahoma GOP Gov. Frank Keating, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., and Keating and Istook discouraged him, the Tulsa World reported.
Keating said Rohrabacher told him he wanted to pursue a theory that McVeigh and Nichols were trained to make explosives by the FBI, and when they carried out the attack, the FBI covered up its involvement.
"I told him, 'With all due respect, I don't think you know how agents work,'" said Keating, a former FBI agent and top-ranking Justice Department official. "It makes absolutely no sense."
A spokeswoman for Istook confirmed he spoke with Rohrabacher and discouraged him from going ahead.
COMMENTS
- Skeptical You left out the JFK conspiracy ... and you mean the others AREN'T true (I'm being facetious) Patricia GovExec.com reader Posted March 28, 2005 1:18 PM
- SSA, I'm not an agent but couldn't agree more with you. But never, ever underestimate conspiracy theorists' ability to connect dots that aren't there: Elvis is still being sighted, aliens are abducting citizens and performing medical experiments on cows, Clinton had Ron Brown killed, John F. Kerry is a war hero, Ralph Nader is a viable candidate for President, and Rove is the mastermind behind everything from the WTC terrorist attack to causing the removal of air from Mars... Skeptical Posted March 25, 2005 8:15 AM
- As a federal agent for more than 20 years, I was extremely disappointed to learn that a member of Congress would even consider holding such a hearing. The Oklahoma City bombing case was one of the most thoroughly investigated cases in American history. Millions of investigative manhours, and enormous resources went into this investigation, and the guilty have been punished. Why reopen these wounds for the families of the victims, based upon some crackpot conspiracy "theory"? Maybe Congress should also hold hearings on the disappearance of Judge Crater in the 1930's, or some equally ridiculous idea! GovExec.com reader Posted March 24, 2005 5:38 PM
