Time: Wed Mar 05 17:43:23 1997 by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id NAA13271; Wed, 5 Mar 1997 13:51:47 -0700 (MST) Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 17:42:46 -0800 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: SLS: L&J: ATF Informant Says Cover-Up! <snip> > >The New American * March 17, 1997 > > > ATF INFORMANT SAYS COVER-UP > --------------------------- > by William F. Jasper > >After nearly two years of adamant denials that any federal agencies >had even the slightest inkling of any plot to blow up the Alfred P. >Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, federal prosecutors have been >dealt a stunning blow. Just weeks before the scheduled March 31st >start of the trial of bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh, a series of >revelations have forced the Justice Department to concede that they >did indeed have an undercover informant inside a white supremacist >group which this magazine and other news organizations had >previously linked to McVeigh. Even more important, newly available >evidence from this informant and other federal sources strongly >supports the suspicions that Andreas Karl Strassmeir, a mysterious >German national reported on previously in these pages (see The New >American for June 24, 1996 and July 8, 1996), not only was a >confederate of McVeigh, but was also a federal undercover >operative. > >During the first two weeks of February, Justice Department >officials went into panic mode in an attempt to suppress what >threatened to become an avalanche of exposes by major media >organizations concerning the freshest and most damning proof that >federal authorities had detailed information about the bombing >conspiracy long before the fateful explosion of April 19, 1995. The >primary object of their alarm was Carol M. Howe, a 26-year-old >former Miss Teenage America semi-finalist and honors student from >Tulsa, Oklahoma who had become involved with the militantly racist >White Aryan Resistance (WAR), the Aryan Republican Army (ARA), and >a related white separatist community in Oklahoma known as Elohim >City. > >Early Warnings > >According to Howe, in mid-1994 she was approached by ATF Agent >Angela Finley and became a confidential informant for the agency. >Agent Finley regularly debriefed Howe concerning her activities >with WAR chief Dennis Mahon of Tulsa and her many visits to Elohim >City. > >According to J.D. Cash, investigative reporter for the McCurtain >Daily Gazette in Idabel, Oklahoma, specific warnings of plans to >blow up the Murrah Building were contained in the more than 70 >reports Howe made to Finley during 1994-95. Cash, who has broken >many of the major stories on the Elohim City connection to the >bombing, had apprised The New American of his discovery of the ATF >informant months ago. However, it was not until early December 1996 >that he learned Howe's identity and began a series of interviews >with her that culminated in an extensive and explosive article >published in the Gazette on February 11th. > >Utilizing contacts and information developed by Cash, the ABC 20/20 >team, which had already produced an important report on the >government's prior knowledge in its January 17th broadcast, >obtained a telephone interview with Howe, who had gone into hiding. >This interview was deemed so "hot" that ABC decided not to wait for >the regular 20/20 airing but to break it on the evening news with >Peter Jennings. Part of the impetus for this quick-release decision >came from the fact that the NBC Dateline team was also closing in >on the same story. > >Aware that ABC was preparing to broadcast what was potentially a >devastating blow to the Clinton Administration's repeated claims >that it had no forewarning, the Justice Department began a >preemptive strike. Calling journalists and news groups, >particularly those gathered in Denver to cover the McVeigh trial, >Justice officials warned that ABC would be breaking a story that >was sensational and irresponsible, and that grossly misrepresented >the ATF's and FBI's prior knowledge of the OKC bomb attack. At the >same time, Justice officials were bearing down on Jennings and ABC >executives. To the dismay of the 20/20 and ABC News crews, who >recognized a major scoop, ABC management buckled and the show was >scratched. > >Strassmeir Connection > >Two nights later, however, Tom Brokaw and NBC News did give some >significant coverage to this important story. In a special >investigation story, NBC's Mike Boettcher reported on the Carol >Howe revelations and ran heretofore unseen video footage of Howe >(with a large swastika tatoo on her arm) and others at Elohim City >firing weapons during their paramilitary training. The broadcast >also featured a 1994 German television interview in which Mahon and >Howe appeared. In that interview, Howe, ironically, was asked if >she thought that their neo-Nazi group had been infiltrated by >federal agents. Of course, she cooly replied, giving no indication >of her own role in that effort. With file videotape rolling of >Andreas Strassmeir in Berlin, NBC's Boettcher stated: > >Howe gave the government information before the bombing on alleged >threats by others in Elohim City, including this man, Andreas >Strassmeir. According to federal documents, Strassmeir was the >military training officer for Mahon's organization called the White >Aryan Resistance. The FBI summary of informant Carol Howe's report >states, "Strassmeir has talked frequently about direct action >against the U.S. government. He is trained in weaponry and has >discussed assassination, bombings, and mass shootings. Strassmeir >and Mahon have taken three trips to Oklahoma City." > >The NBC report on Howe ended by noting that "the government >acknowledges in federal documents that she was their informant. >While Carol Howe reported on white supremacists, their talk about >bombings and anti-government threats, there is no evidence that she >reported a specific threat to the Murrah Federal Building before >the bombing." > >But according to others, there is indeed evidence of a "specific >threat" to the Murrah Building in Howe's ATF reports. Sources >familiar with the reports informed The New American that as far >back as November 1994, Howe warned that two Elohim City residents >were casing three federal buildings in Tulsa and Oklahoma City and >that Howe also secretly filmed Strassmeir, Dennis Mahon, and ARA >bank robbers Peter Langan and Kevin McCarthy arming and painting >hand grenades. > >Howe also reportedly has identified Timothy McVeigh and Michael >Fortier as visitors to Elohim City in December 1994. However, she >says she knew them as "Tim Tuttle" and "Mike Fontaine." Tim Tuttle >is a name that other witnesses have also reported McVeigh using. > >Transparent Denials > >Back in November 1996, federal prosecutors complained vigorously >that discovery requests by defense attorneys suggested "that there >may have been 'prior knowledge (of the bombing) by the government' >and, in particular, suggests that the bombing actually may have >been a misguided 'sting operation' conducted by the Bureau of >Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATF)." This was completely >"unfounded," they insisted, "because the prosecution is not >withholding anything that even remotely would support such an >outrageous charge." But the Carol Howe testimony provided to the >ATF goes far beyond "remotely" supporting this charge. And if >anything is "outrageous" it is the prosecution's previous >suppression of this "nonexistent" evidence, which it has now been >forced to provide to the defense teams for McVeigh and Nichols. It >is altogether possible, however, that the defense attorneys may >also elect to suppress the evidence, since Howe's reports link >McVeigh to Strassmeir, Mahon, and Elohim City - connections which >McVeigh's lawyers deny. > >The Justice Department has repeatedly denied - to the press, the >bombing victims' families, and the federal court - that it has any >information linking Strassmeir to the Oklahoma bombing. That >position has now become so patently ludicrous that even many of the >willfully blind Establishment mediameisters may eventually catch on >and inadvertently give away some of the deceptive game plan. Carol >Howe's testimony is not the only evidence linking the government's >prime suspect, Timothy McVeigh, to Andreas "Andi" Strassmeir. As >reported in The New American in earlier stories, the two are >connected by: > >* A call to Elohim City for "Andi" placed on McVeigh's calling card >from Kingman, Arizona on April 5, 1995. > >* A traffic ticket issued to McVeigh in 1993 on a remote rural road >just a few miles from Elohim City. > >* Witnesses in Herrington, Kansas (where Terry Nichols resided) who >reported seeing McVeigh with Strassmeir. > >* A belated admission by Strassmeir that he had met McVeigh at a >gun show and purchased some military clothing from him. > >* Witnesses who identify Strassmeir's Elohim City roommate, Michael >Brescia, as the elusive John Doe No. 2. > > >Ignoring the Obvious > >Incredibly, the soi-disant investigative reporters of the prestige >press have failed thus far to connect the obvious dots. Even if one >ignores the mountainous evidence now accumulated pointing to prior >knowledge and swallows the Justice Department line, one is faced >with a glaring problem: Why didn't the ATF or FBI arrest >Strassmeir, Mahon, and company after the bombing, or, at the very >least, bring them in for questioning? On the basis of Carol Howe's >reports alone, these should have been the FBI's prime suspects. In >the months following the deadly blast, hundreds of federal agents >interviewed thousands of witnesses and suspects, and many militia >groups with no known criminal intentions were targeted in high- >profile raids while Strassmeir, a foreign national at high risk of >fleeing, was ignored. Months after the bombing, after Strassmeir >had fled to Germany, the FBI decided it might be worthwhile to >interview him. By then, of course, it was too late; the best they >could do was conduct the interview by telephone. > >Is the FBI really that incredibly inept, or were they under orders >to let Strassmeir walk because he was an important undercover asset >for the bureau or some other federal agency? In the period since >the bombing, the FBI and ATF have shown that they have had deep >moles placed in a great many militant "right-wing" organizations >from coast to coast. It is incomprehensible that they would have >neglected the notorious Aryan socialists who flowed through Elohim >City on a regular basis, especially since people affiliated with >the group had been involved in an earlier bombing conspiracy >targeting the same Alfred Murrah Building in 1985. > >In a series of interviews conducted in Berlin last year with >Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Daily Telegraph of London, >Strassmeir stated that he came to the U.S. in 1989 because he was >planning to work on a special assignment for the U.S. Justice >Department. "I discussed the job when I was in Washington," he told >Evans-Pritchard. "I was hoping to work for the operations section >of the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration]." But, Strassmeir >said, "It didn't work out." Or did it? Last July The New American >interviewed Vincent Petruskie, a former Air Force officer whom >Strassmeir identified as a CIA agent and friend of his father. >Petruskie, who now runs Petruskie Associates, a business consulting >firm in Manassas, Virginia, confirmed that "Andi wanted to work for >the U.S. government - DEA, Justice - undercover," and he had put >the German soldier in touch with "some people in Washington." > >One of Strassmeir's closest friends in the U.S., Dennis Mahon, >asserts that Strassmeir had been a member of Germany's elite GSG-9 >counter-terrorism unit. According to Strassmeir himself, he had >done undercover work in Germany for the German government before >coming to America. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- >THE NEW AMERICAN - Copyright 1997 >American Opinion Publishing, Incorporated >P.O. 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Address reposting requests to tna@jbs.org or >the above address. > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= >Unsub info - send e-mail to majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com, with >"unsubscribe liberty-and-justice" in the body (not the subject) >Liberty-and-Justice list-owner is Mike Goldman <whig@pobox.com> > > ======================================================================== Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S. : Counselor at Law, federal witness email: [address in tool bar] : Eudora Pro 3.0.1 on Intel 586 CPU web site: http://www.supremelaw.com : library & law school registration 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 ========================================================================
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