Time: Thu Sep 18 11:08:10 1997
by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id LAA05190;
Thu, 18 Sep 1997 11:08:02 -0700 (MST)
by usr05.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id LAA18377;
Thu, 18 Sep 1997 11:04:49 -0700 (MST)
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 11:04:34 -0700
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Retired General Partin talks to Grand Jury (fwd)
<snip>
>
>Bomb Theory Offered
>By Brian Ford And Barbara Hoberock World Capitol Bureau
>9/18/97
>
><B>Other Devices in Murrah, Ex-General Says<BR></B>
>
> OKLAHOMA CITY -- A county grand jury heard Wednesday from a retired
>Air Force general who maintains the truck bomb used by Timothy McVeigh was
>not enough to cause the damage that killed 168 people at the Alfred P.
>Murrah Federal Building.<BR>
> ``My conclusions were there had to have been demolition charges in
>the building,'' said retired Brig. Gen. Benton K. Partin. Partin testified
>for several hours before the grand jury, which is examining various
>allegations concerning the 1995 bombing. ``The so-called 4,000 pounds of
>ammonium nitrate and fuel oil could not have possibly done the
>damage.''<BR>
> Partin, 71, says he served 31 years of active duty in the Air Force
>and was involved in the testing and analysis of weapons systems. He wrote
>a position paper assessing the bombing damage. His analysis, which is
>posted on the Internet, was based on various reports and photographs of
>the Murrah site. His analysis does not cite direct physical examination by
>Partin of the bomb site.<BR>
> Timothy McVeigh, who was sentenced June 13 to die, allegedly drove a
>rental truck containing 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate and other
>materials and detonating it outside the Murrah Building on April 19, 1995.
>Co-defendant Terry Nichols goes on trial Sep. 29.<BR>
> ``To cause the damage pattern that occurred to the Murrah Building,
>there would have to have been demolition charges at several supporting
>column bases, at locations not accessible from the street, to supplement
>the truck bomb damage,'' Partin said in his analysis.<BR>
> However, a bomb expert at McVeigh's trial said the damage
>to the building was consistent with the characteristics of an ammonium
>nitrate and fuel oil bomb. <BR>
> Partin maintained that an ammonium nitrate bomb would not have enough
>velocity to do the amount of damage seen at the Murrah Building. The bomb
>expert at McVeigh's trial said the blast velocity of an ammonium nitrate
>fertilizer bomb varies with the ingredients that were used to detonate
>it.<BR>
> The grand jury was sparked by Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City, and
>the late Glenn Wilburn, who died of pancreatic cancer earlier this
>year.<BR>
> Key said Wednesday he has raised $32,543 in private donations, in
>part to hire investigators to find potential witnesses and evidence that
>are recommended to the grand jury. Key believes that McVeigh was
>accompanied by one or more men at the time of the bombing; that the
>federal government covered up bomb warnings it received prior to the
>blast, and that more than one bomb may have been used.<BR>
> Also Wednesday, Oscar ``Dude'' Gooden, a federal General Services
>Administration elevator inspector, testified before the grand jury.<BR>
> Another witness testified earlier this summer that Gooden was among
>a group of General Services Administration employees who took the witness
>home after he was injured in the blast. V.Z. Lawton, a Department of
>Housing and Urban Development employee, testified that the GSA employees
>who drove him home that day said they had been told the day before to
>perform a ``security check'' on the Murrah Building.<BR>
> Gooden works out of the GSA office in Fort Worth. A GSA supervisor in
>Fort Worth said Gooden was in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, to inspect
>the building's elevator system, but never picked up Lawton. The supervisor
>said another GSA employee named by Lawton was on an airplane at the time
>of the bombing.<BR>
> Gooden said he was told not to speak with reporters and is expected
>to return Thursday to complete his testimony.<BR>
> Former Oklahoma City television reporter Jayna Davis, 33, said she
>will take the stand on Thursday to authenticate a summary of statements
>she provided to prosecutors.<BR>
> Davis said the documents are abstracts of what her sources told her
>regarding the identity of others who are possibly connected to the
>bombing.<BR>
> Davis said one of her reports was about a witness who picked out a
>person believed to be with McVeigh several days before the bombing.<BR>
> "I believe my witnesses are being truthful when they say they
>believe others were involved, that they have first-hand knowledge of
>that," Davis said.<BR>
> In January or February, Davis, who quit working for KFOR in March,
>provided the information to Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy but
>took out the names of her sources.<BR>
> "I can't violate their confidentiality," Davis said. "This is a
>detailed investigation I turned over. It spans nearly two years. The
>question that will most likely be before me is `Jayna, did you talk to
>some of the same witnesses before the grand jury?' "<BR>
> Davis said she couldn't confirm or deny that some of the witnesses
>are the same, but said to the best of her knowledge, the grand jury hasn't
>heard any evidence regarding the evidence trail she says she
>discovered.<BR>
> Davis lost a battle last week when a judge ruled she had to testify
>before the grand jury.<BR>
>
>Davis said her attempt to avoid testifying was an effort to protect her
>sources.<BR>
> Her sources want the information out, but don't want their names
>released unless they are given police protection, she said.<BR>
> Davis said she expects her testimony will be short and limited to
>saying she supplied the abstract of information.<BR>
> Davis' stories were the target of a lawsuit filed by Al-Hussaini
>Hussain, who says her stories were libelous and invaded his privacy.
>Davis, her former employer and others were named as defendants.<BR>
> Davis said her stories never identified the person her sources said
>had possible links to the bombing.<BR>
> Gary Richardson, a Tulsa attorney who represents Hussain, said Hussain
>is living out of state. <BR>
> "We dropped the lawsuit for reasons at the time of being unable to
>locate a witness we needed," Richardson said. "We were able to locate that
>witness and the case is going to be refiled hopefully fairly soon. The
>lawsuit would be refiled either in Oklahoma County District Court or
>possibly in federal court'' in Oklahoma City, he said.<BR>
> Richardson said he has not heard anything about his client being
>called before the grand jury.<BR> <a
>href="http://www.tulsaworld.com/disclaim.htm">Copyright</a> 1996, World
>Publishing Co. All rights reserved.<BR><BR><BR>
>
<snip>
========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness
B.A., Political Science, UCLA; M.S., Public Administration, U.C. Irvine
tel: (520) 320-1514: machine; fax: (520) 320-1256: 24-hour/day-night
email: [address in tool bar] : using Eudora Pro 3.0.3 on 586 CPU
website: http://www.supremelaw.com : visit the Supreme Law Library now
ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best
Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone
Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this
As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice. We shall
not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal.
========================================================================
[This text formatted on-screen in Courier 11, non-proportional spacing.]
Return to Table of Contents for
Supreme Law School: E-mail