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Fbi destroyed gang link evidence Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2577576http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2577576
Thu 26 Feb 2004
3:43am (UK)
Oklahoma Bombing: FBI 'Destroyed Gang-Link Evidence'
"PA"
FBI agents destroyed evidence and failed to share information that a gang of white supremacist bank robbers may have assisted Timothy McVeigh in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, according to documents never introduced at the mass murderer’s trial.
Retired FBI chief of the Oklahoma City investigation, Dan Defenbaugh, said he was unaware of some evidence obtained by The Associated Press and said the investigation should be reopened to determine whether the gang was linked to McVeigh.
The evidence never shared with Defenbaugh’s investigators or defence lawyers includes documents showing the Aryan Republican Army bank robbers possessed explosive blasting caps similar to those stolen by McVeigh and a driving licence with the name of a central player who was robbed in the Oklahoma City plot.
“If the evidence is still there, then it should be checked out,” said Defenbaugh, who reviewed the documents at the request of the news agency. “If I were still in the bureau, the investigation would be reopened.”
Danny Coulson, the FBI scene commander for the Oklahoma bomb site, agreed.
“There is some unanswered questions here. A lot of things happened that were inappropriate,” Coulson said.
“I think it needs to be reopened, but I don’t think it should be reopened by the FBI. It needs to be a special investigator, a lawyer, totally independent. He needs to have subpoena power and the ability to use a grand jury.”
The April 19 bombing of the Alfred P Murrah government building killed more than 160 people. McVeigh was executed in 2001.
His co-defendant, Terry Nichols, will stand trial in Oklahoma next week on state charges that carry the death penalty.
Peter Langan, one member of the robbery gang, told the AP he planned to testify at Nichols’ trial and that federal prosecutors several years ago offered, and then withdrew, a plea deal for information he had about the Oklahoma City bombing.
Langan said at least three fellow gang members were in Oklahoma around the time of the bombing and one later confided to him that they had become involved.
The gang “had some liability problems as it related to Oklahoma City”, Langan alleged in a telephone interview from prison where he is serving life sentences for a 1990s robbery spree involving nearly two dozen banks.
McVeigh’s former lawyer said the evidence obtained by the AP was the strongest to date to show what he has argued for years – that the bombing conspiracy may have involved more people than McVeigh and Nichols.
“I think these pieces close the circle, and they clearly show the bombing conspiracy consisted probably of 10 conspirators,” Stephen Jones said.
“They
government officials] simply turned their backs on a group of people for which there is credible evidence suggesting they were involved in the murder of 160 people.”
FBI and Justice Department officials refused to comment, citing the upcoming trial.
Agents who worked both the McVeigh bombing and the bank robbery spree – two of the FBI’s highest priority cases of the 1990s – said they suspected a link between the two because of physical evidence as well as statements made by the robbers and a girlfriend.
The agents said they ruled out a connection when the bank robbers denied their involvement and provided an alibi showing they left Oklahoma three days before McVeigh’s bomb detonated outside the building.
That alibi, however, was contradicted by information Langan offered prosecutors and by car sales records showing the bank robbers were still in the Oklahoma area after they claimed to have left, FBI documents show.
Defenbaugh said his investigators never were told about the license, the blasting caps or problems with the robbers’ alibi, and he first learned of them from the AP this year.
Adding to the intrigue, a death row inmate who has written a book about his experiences with McVeigh inside prison claims the bomber told him the bank robbery gang assisted the bombing plot.
David Hammer, a convicted murderer set to be executed in June, said he had no way of knowing whether McVeigh told him the truth but he kept notes from his conversations and believed prison officials surreptitiously recorded some conversations. His book, due out next month, details what McVeigh told him about the robbers.
“He
McVeigh] knew they were involved because he said he planned it with them,” Hammer said. “He said they were part of what he called his security detail.”
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