Neo-Nazi May Save Terry Nichols From Death Chamber

Pete Langan, leader of the Aryan Republican Army, will testify that Timothy McVeigh had help from far right-wing extremists in executing the Oklahoma City bombing.



According to the McCurtain Gazette, Langan will testify that members of his racist bank robbery gang were involved in the bombing plot, and that they robbed gun dealer Roger Moore, a crime for which Nichols was previously blamed.



The new development could keep Nichols out of the death chamber. The Oklahoma state trial set to begin in March is solely for the purpose of attaining a death penalty against Nichols. The new testimony may exonerate Nichols from the most serious charges he currently faces.



The outlines of Langan's likely testimony can be found here and were discussed in great detail in the 2002 investigative book "In Bad Company," by Mark S. Hamm. The testimony may also shed light on the mystery of John Doe 2, a never indicted suspect sought by the FBI in the days after the OKC bombing. According to Hamm, several possible suspects could account for the John Doe 2 sightings, including white supremacist Andreas Strassmeier or former ARA suspect Michael Bresica.

Labels: INTELWIRE-Exclusive

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ANALYSIS: New MS Claims Elohim City Link to OKC Bombing

By J.M. BERGER


Intelwire.com





A story published by the McCurtain Daily Gazette details an elaborate conspiracy to bomb the Murrah Federal Building by white separatists associated with the Elohim City compound in Oklahoma.





J.D. Cash of the Gazette reveals the contents of a manuscript written by a federal death row inmate named David Paul Hammer, who had contact with McVeigh before his death. The MS provides copious dates and names associated with the alleged plot, outlining an extremely complicated plan to execute the bombings and fund revolutionary activities through a series of bank robberies. The MS also claims that Nichols had relatively little culpability in the bombing plot.





A "first blush" analyis by INTELWIRE found no immediate conflict with any indisputably proven movements by McVeigh during the crucial dates identified in the MS. In fact, the MS appeared to closely match even relatively obscure details of McVeigh's movements. However, the account of the bomb's construction and delivery, as detailed in the MS, appears to conflict somewhat with well documented incidents in which McVeigh and Nichols purchased and stored chemicals and supplies used in the bombing.





The MS also largely exonerates Nichols for his alleged role in the bombing, which conflicts with the fairly conclusive documentary evidence closely linking Nichols and McVeigh, as well as statements, testimony and evidence that seem to definitively implicate Nichols as a significant partner of McVeigh's (regardless of any other individuals possibly involved in the plot).





McVeigh was known for distortions and even outright lies on the rare occasions that he discussed the bombing with anyone after his arrest, as well as in more informal conversations in the years preceding the bombing. The date and name correspondences in the MS, while not necessarily validating the entire account, do raise the significant possibility that some of the claims are accurate, or at least that McVeigh intimately knew the people named. Much of the information in the MS corresponds to previous reporting by Cash and reports by AP investigative bureau chief John Solomon, who has worked with Cash on various related stories.





Taken in whole, it would appear that the MS offers new (but still circumstantial) support for an alleged connection to Elohim City. However, signficant elements of the document, especially in relation to events preceding the bombing during early 1995, are sufficiently inconsistent with the evidence to suggest that several specific claims should be examined with a skeptical eye.





-- JM Berger

Labels: Analysis, INTELWIRE-Exclusive

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Benevolence-Linked Palestinian Charged in Florida

Adham Hassoun, who opened a South Florida office of the Benevolence International Foundation, has been charged with illegally possessing a firearm, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.





Federal authorities previously linked Hassoun to Jose Padilla, an alleged al Qaeda "dirty bomber" currently being held as an enemy combatant by the federal government. According to some published reports, authorities suspected that Hassoun may have been involved in Padilla's conversion to Islam.





According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, in a separate proceeding "Immigration Judge Neale Foster found Hassoun participated in an assassination plot, recruited a "jihad fighter," donated money to charities under investigation for possible links to terrorism and belonged to an international terrorist organization called Al-Gama Al-Islamiyya, according to Hassoun's petition for release to a federal district judge. That petition was denied."





Al-Gama Al-Islamiyya, also known as the Islamic Group, was led by Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the spiritual leader of a New York City-based al Qaeda cell. One member of that cell, Clement Rodney Hampton-El, recruited U.S. military veterans for al Qaeda, as reported in an investigative report exclusive to Intelwire. The al Qaeda recruitment plot corresponds closely to the movements of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in key time frames.





McVeigh traveled to South Florida in January 1993 and stayed through March, visiting with his sister in Plantation, FL, about 20 minutes from the Benevolence office, according to evidence presented at his trial. He sold merchandise at two local gun shows during that period. Hassoun signed a lease for the Benevolence office during the same period.





During the planning and execution of the OKCBOMB plot, McVeigh and Terry Nichols both traveled in and around Chicago, where the Benevolence International Foundation was based in from mid-1993 on. Padilla had a son in Chicago, where he had been raised. Nichols traveled through Illinois on the way to a gun show just days before the first sightings of John Doe 2, according to testimony and evidence at his and McVeigh's trial.

Labels: Benevolence-International-Foundation, INTELWIRE-Exclusive

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INTELWIRE Backgrounder: Jose Padilla

An in-depth look at Al Qaeda's alleged dirty bomber. Includes substantial research material, legal and case documents, timeline and biographical detail. KEYWORDS: Jose Padilla, Abdullah al Muhajir, Padilla, Supreme Court, terrorist, dirty bomb, dirty bomber, John Doe, John Doe 2, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Benevolence International Foundation

Labels: INTELWIRE-Exclusive

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