KTOK has it on their site today here, and at the bottom is a link to the original article by the McCurtain County Gazette. I don't have much time right now, basically it notes that:
ATF had informants in a neo-Nazi compound.
One informant told ATF about the threat to bomb federal buildings in OKC.
The judge in an informants trial(and that's a messy damn story by itself) ordered the information not made available to lawyers in the McVeigh trial 'so it wouldn't affect the trial'.
More later. I'm already disgusted as well as mad about this.
Ok, with more time to read the article, it's summed up in the first two paragraphs:
Unearthed by a Salt Lake City, Utah, attorney, statements made by a Tulsa Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) agent in a federal courtroom confirm that a confidential informant did warn the agency of plans to bomb federal buildings before the attack in Oklahoma City that left 168 dead and hundreds more injured.
Moreover, a federal judge in Oklahoma ordered that the information be kept sealed because of its potential impact on the trial of bomber Timothy McVeigh, records show.
That covers it pretty well. Despite all the denials, despite all the crap, federal agents knew there were specific threats to federal buildings in OKC. They even saw the buildings: "Howe was debriefed and then taken to Oklahoma City to show Graham the areas she visited with the individuals who were part of a wide-ranging terrorist investigation that was receiving substantial funding and attention in Washington, D.C." And while some of those who testified in court or gave statements may not have known, others did. And they lied about it, under oath. They gave sworn statements in which they lied. They testified in court, and lied.
And then, just to make this really, truly wonderful, the judge in the case had this exchange with a federal prosecutor(Burrage is the judge):
Burrage: "With that McVeigh trial going on, I don't want anything getting out of here that would compromise that trial in any way."
Brewster: "What do you mean by 'compromise?' Do you mean snared with McVeigh's lawyers?"
Burrage: "Yes, or something that would come up - you know, we have got evidence that the ATF took a trip with somebody that said buildings were going to be blown up in Oklahoma City before it was blown up or something of that nature, and try to connect it to McVeigh in someway or something."
Brewster: "That would be up to their representation of the client in some regard, Your Honor. If you are asking me not to share any documentation from these files with those lawyers, then I won't."
So, let's see, federal agents and lawyers lying under oath, a judge witholding information from defense lawyers that had bearing on the case... and before all that, hundreds of people dead and injured in a bombing the feds had been warned about.
People, we're talking about perjury by agents and lawyers, we're talking about a judge breaking law. People should be prosecuted for this, lawyers should be disbarred for life for this. And you could probably make a good case for negligent homicide cases against those who knew of the warnings and didn't, from the sound of it, do squat about it.
Think any of that'll happen? Me neither. And crap like this is why I despair for my country.
No comments:
Post a Comment