|
Okc warning { April 19 1995 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020620/ap_wo_en_po/us_attacks_1995_warnings_2http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020620/ap_wo_en_po/us_attacks_1995_warnings_2
Weeks before 1995 Oklahoma bombing, government warned of possible terror attacks on federal buildings
Thu Jun 20,12:37 PM ET
By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Just weeks before Timothy McVeigh ( news - web sites) bombed the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, U.S. authorities received several warnings that Islamic terrorists were seeking to strike on American soil and that a likely target was government buildings, documents show.
The information, though it was never linked to McVeigh, was stark enough that the Clinton administration urged stepped-up security patrols and screening at federal buildings nationwide, including those in Oklahoma.
The government, however, didn't fortify buildings with concrete barriers like those hurriedly installed after McVeigh detonated his explosive-laden truck at the curb of the Murrah building on April 19, 1995, officials said.
Islamic extremists are determined to "strike inside the U.S. against objects symbolizing the American government in the near future," said one warning obtained by The Associated Press.
Some survivors and relatives of victims said they still don't think the intelligence would have led to McVeigh because it pointed to Islamic extremists.
"What bothers me is that people say the government was warned, but there was nothing specific. How can you lock down all federal buildings?" asked Dan McKinney, whose wife, a Secret Service employee, and niece perished in the attack.
The intelligence that prompted the warnings was gathered across the globe from Iran and Syria to the Philippines and became more specific as to the potential type attack (suicide bombing), target (government building) and likely date (after the third week in March 1995), the documents show.
The U.S. Marshals Service issued an alert on March 15, 1995, to federal courthouses it protects, including the one in Oklahoma City across the street from where McVeigh's truck bomb killed 168 people, the documents show.
"Iranian extremists want it made clear that steps are being taken to strike at the Great Satan," a term used frequently in the Mideast to describe the United States, the marshals memo said. It said a fatwa — a religious order — had been issued to attack marshals or their buildings.
"There is sufficient threat potential to request that a heightened level of security awareness and caution be implemented," the memo added.
Separately, the General Services Administration received a warning from the FBI ( news - web sites) and asked hundreds of federal buildings it operates to increase security details, including the Murrah building, officials said.
"We were told there was a fatwa threatening to target federal buildings," GSA spokeswoman Viki Reath said this week. "We increased our patrols to 12-hour shifts."
More than two dozen current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials interviewed by AP said the period of spring 1995 was a time of heightened "chatter" among terrorists seeking to strike the United States.
But the officials cautioned the FBI and CIA ( news - web sites) exhaustively investigated whether McVeigh could have been aided by Mideast terrorist and found no credible evidence linking him to any Islamic extremists, including those who prompted the 1995 warnings.
|
|
