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Mob inmate tip ignored by FBI Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/11402690.htmhttp://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/11402690.htm
Posted on Fri, Apr. 15, 2005
FBI waited weeks to check tip on Nichols, bomb stash
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – The FBI initially dismissed a tip that convicted bomber Terry Nichols had hidden explosives and they might be used for an attack this month coinciding with the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Although the FBI has found no evidence supporting the idea that an attack is in the works for Tuesday, the 10th anniversary, the information that explosives had been hidden in Nichols’ former home in Herington, Kan., turned out to be true.
The tip came from imprisoned mobster Gregory Scarpa Jr., 53, a law enforcement official said this week. Scarpa is an inmate in the same maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colo., where Nichols is serving life sentences for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 people. Timothy McVeigh was convicted of federal conspiracy and murder charges in the bombing and executed in 2001.
Scarpa learned about the explosives from Nichols, mainly through notes passed between them, said Stephen Dresch, a Michigan man who is Scarpa’s informal advocate.
Dresch gave the information to the FBI in early March. But FBI agents did not search the vacant house until March 31. The bureau did not act more quickly because Scarpa failed a lie detector test, said the law enforcement official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the investigation.
The FBI lab continues to examine the materials for fingerprints and other clues that might show where the explosives originated and who might have had them before they got into Nichols’ home.
Scarpa, a member of the Colombo organized crime family serving 50-plus years on drug trafficking, conspiracy and racketeering convictions, first communicated information about the explosives March 1, then provided more details March 10 and 11, Dresch said in letters sent to the staffs of two members of Congress and to the FBI’s Detroit office. Scarpa revealed the location of the house March 11, Dresch said.
The first letter said Scarpa learned from another prisoner, assumed by Dresch to be Nichols, “the location of a bomb on U.S. soil.” The second described two rock piles in the crawl space beneath Nichols’ former home. Under one, it said, were cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic. Those details match what the FBI said it found.
Aides to Reps. William Delahunt, D-Mass., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., acknowledged receiving the letters by fax. Delahunt’s office received the letter March 1 or 2 and forwarded it to the FBI, said Steve Schwadron, the lawmaker’s chief of staff. The letter to Rohrabacher was not read until after the FBI search had been done, Rohrabacher spokeswoman Rebecca Rudman said.
The FBI declined to comment on the delay.
Delahunt has chided the FBI for its dealings with informants, while Rohrabacher is considering requesting a hearing on the bureau’s handling of the Oklahoma City investigation.
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