Others Unknown : The Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy

The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was the greatest act of terrorist violence ever committed in the United States. Timothy James McVeigh and Terry Lynn Nichols were accused, tried, and convicted in the bombing conspiracy. Whatever one says about that verdictand, as McVeighs counsel, I will have a great deal to say in these pagesit strains belief to suppose that this appalling crime was the work of two menany two men. I believe it came about because of foreign involvement. I also believe our government might have prevented the whole thingif it had been paying attention. This book is an attempt to explain what happened and why. On April 19, 1995, in downtown Oklahoma City, a bomb went off outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. One hundred and sixty-eight people, many of them children, were killed, and hundreds of others were wounded. It was the worst case of domestic terrorism in the history of the United States. Within hours, Timothy James McVeigh was arrested. Within a few days, Terry Lynn Nichols was also in custody. The case against them, as presented by the United States government, was uncomplicated, black and white in tone, and severely limited in focus. It pointed the finger at these two men and these two men only. It was all so simple.Too simple.In a book that will challenge not only what America thinks about the bombing, but what it thinks about its own Federal government, Stephen Jones, chief defense counsel during the McVeigh trial, reveals what really happened, not just on that terrible April morning, but before and after. Others Unknown reveals:evidence that the Oklahoma City bombing plot could not have been exclusively the work of two menany two men;evidence that the United States government may have had prior knowledge about the attack and failed to act on itincluding confidentia l statements from an ATF informant who told them in advance about the attack and an anonymous, phone warning prior to the blast;evidence that from the moment the bomb exploded the United States government disregarded information that would have weakened their cases against Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh;possible links between Islamic terrorist Osama bin Ladenthe leading suspect in the recent bombings of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzaniaand Terry Nichols;information about John Doe No.2the mysterious man who multiple people identified as the renter of the Ryder truck; andtroubling evidence about Terry Nicholss secret past and questions about his many mysterious trips to the Philippines.Jones reveals a tangled, sinister web that incluced such figures as Richard Mahon, a leader of the KKK and White Aryan Resistance who was secretly taking money from the Iraqi government; Carol Howe, a former debutante turned neo-Nazi who became a government informer; and Andreas Strassmeir, grandson of one of the founders of the Nazi party, whose own neo-Nazi beliefs led him to Oklahoma and the plot. Traveling from Oklahoma to Europe to the Middle East and Asia, Jones uncovers a bomb plot far more complicated than previously known. And he shows exactly how the government worked to prevent the true story from emerging.A book of startling conclusions and evidence, Others Unknown is a tale of conspiracy, terrorism and justice undone.

Stephen Jones, the chief defense counsel for Timothy McVeigh, the first of two men convicted in the tragic 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, lays out a case that McVeigh and Terry Nichols, also convicted in the bombing, did not act alone. In his attempt to defend McVeigh, Jones traveled the globe to turn up every possible scrap of information that might lead him to the "others unknown" cited by the grand jury that heard evidence in the bombing case. Some of the evidence is compelling, including the severed leg that did not match any of the victims; Jones is convinced it belonged to "John Doe number two," an unidentified man credited with planting the bomb in the Murrah Office Building. Jones also lays out a very strong argument that Terry Nichols was in touch with Muslim fundamentalist terrorists in the Philippines and that he asked them to help him build a bomb. But Jones's refusal to break his attorney-client privilege by discussing anything that McVeigh said to him forces the author to walk a tightrope, revealing nothing about his client's role in the bombing while trying to outline the potential involvement of others.

Non-conspiracy buffs may find it far-fetched that the United States government would want to cover up information about the possible involvement of Muslim fundamentalists or white supremacists in the bombing, but Jones has two arguments to support the idea. First, he suggests, the government was trying to cover its tracks for not having heeded various danger signs before the bombing took place. In addition, this was too big and too horrible a crime to go unpunished; it had to be closed without question and with no suspects left at large. For those who are persuaded by Jones's arguments, the chilling question remains: when--and where--will the "others unknown" strike next? --Linda Killian