From the May 2005 Idaho Observer:

OK City truth overshadowed by gala 10-year cover-up celebration

Thousands flock to glimpse liars in high places perpetuate

the coverup; dozens came to hear real witnesses tell the truth

OK City Truth: Ten Years Later was a success in the minds of those who attended. Many people who had not seen each other in a decade came together for a couple days of remembrance and sharing of new information that has surfaced since April 19, 1995. It’s times like these that we are reminded of how easily most of the people can be fooled all of the time and that our job is to stay the course of truth—no matter what.

by Pat Shannan

On April 19, Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, former Gov. Frank Keating, and current Gov. Brad Henry continued the bombing cover-up with their crocodile tears and pap-filled speeches to thousands of Oklahomans inside and outside of the United Methodist Church in downtown Oklahoma City.

Meanwhile, author, reporter, and talk show host Victor Thorn sat on the curb outside the church amidst the throng and was minding his own business when accosted by two OCPD officers and escorted from the area. When Thorn inquired as to the problem, he was told that they did not like the "protest" T-shirt he was wearing.

On the front side of his black shirt, printed in unobtrusive, one-inch white letters were only the dates of which everyone was already well aware: "4.19.95/05."

On the back side the same small print announced: "The OKC Bombing: Still Seeking the Truth, Ten Years Later . . ." an apparently touchy subject of which few wish to be reminded.

This was brought home again the next day when the comparatively sparse crowd showed up for "A Day of Truth" at the downtown Cox Business Center for an all-day presentation by various authors and investigators who are still seeking the truth. We were reminded of the adage, "Truth will always be truth, no matter how many people malign it."

Judicial tyranny reviewed

Hoppy Heidelberg gave first-hand information of what must have been one of the most maligning attacks on truth that year when he told of his attempt to initiate a real grand jury investigation but was kicked off by a federal judge instead. The details were covered in a recent edition of The American Free Press.

Retired OCPD Sgt. Don Browning, formerly of the canine unit, brought new information never before made public as well as confirmation of the usurpation of jurisdiction and cover-up by the FBI.

Browning said he was driving to work from his home in the country that morning when he got the first radio dispatches of the Murrah tragedy. The immediate reports that continued all morning were a five-state alert for as many as seven Middle Easterners who were traveling in a pickup truck. He also understood the suspects to be under surveillance, but by afternoon he was informed that this was "disinformation."

After the whole story was denied by OCPD officials, Officer Browning got a copy of the actual broadcast sheet confirming what he already knew to be true.

Browning was also disturbed by the fact that the FBI stopped the rescue efforts late in the morning, announcing, "No more recovery until certain files are found," at a time when he was still helping live people pinned under debris. "I just don’t know what possibly could have been more important than the lives of those people," he says today, "but while we were on break and waiting on the south side, I watched the FBI agents in their labeled jackets dismantling the surveillance cameras from various positions."

Only a few days later the FBI officials were already denying that any surveillance films from the area existed. The FBI also banned Browning’s canine unit and all other dogs from the scene until their special unit of "professional" dogs could be brought in from Tulsa.

Unlike Sgt. Terry Yeakey, whose police reports were changed by his superiors to omit certain things that he had seen (as told in a previous AFP article), Browning’s reports were "deep-sixed" completely and never recovered. He was later accused of destroying his own reports and threatened by the U. S. Attorney with prosecution for "interfering with a federal investigation."

When the officer was actually read his Miranda rights, he suspected that it was to intimidate him into keeping quiet about the unexploded C-4 he had seen in the rubble of the "pit" area.

Browning’s testimony confirmed one more BATF employee who was not there on April 19. Office secretary Valerie Bowden told him at the Denver trial that she thought she had had a doctor’s appointment that morning but couldn’t remember where or with whom.

HUD employee Jane Graham told of overhearing co-workers at the Murrah snack bar two weeks before the fact, speak of the FBI’s foreknowledge of the bombing. Only days before the explosions, she witnessed what she now believes to be several men installing charges in the building and later identified one of these men as Andreas "Andy the German" Strassmeir.

At 9:03 a.m. on April 19, Mrs. Graham was on the ninth floor learning a new computer program when the building began to shake. She and others clearly remember thinking it was an earthquake and having "7 or 8 seconds" to dive under their desks before the enormous (second) explosion took place.

"There is no way that that second explosion came from outside the building like they wanted the public to believe. . . . [T]he impact came up in force and out, not coming in."

V.Z. Lawton, also a HUD worker on the eighth floor, spoke of being knocked unconscious by falling debris prior to the alleged truck bomb’s explosion.

He never heard it.

Governor’s foreknowledge

In 1997, Lawton met two nurses who worked at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. and who confirmed the government’s prior knowledge. "The day before the bombing we got a call from the governor’s office in the state of Oklahoma wanting to know the proper treatment for blast over-pressure," said one.

Lawton challenged her memory by suggesting that it must have been the day of the bombing, not the day before. "No," she said assuredly, "because the day of the bombing we were all sitting around wondering how they could have known about it the day before."

Former State Representative Charles Key, who lost his seat after 12 years in office because of his persistence to pursue the truth, told of the revelations of Robert Macy, the district attorney who torpedoed the citizen’s grand jury in 1998. During several conversations, Key had asked Macy, "Why don’t you just drop it?" referring to Macy’s opposition to an investigation outside of the auspices of the ever-controlling FBI.

"Because they won’t let me," Macy replied several times over multiple conversations. He finally defined "they" for Rep. Key as being those in greater power i.e. Gov. Keating and Attorney General Drew Edmondson.

Attorney for 9/11 defendants Philip Berg of Pennsylvania was scheduled to speak but had his travel plans sabotaged at the last minute when his plane was stranded on the ground in Philadelphia. His stirring talk was faxed in later and read from the podium by another speaker.

Berg’s note of apology said in part, "My regrets for not being with you. I really tried and am now in a fight with Northwest Airlines for their ‘holding me a hostage’ on the runway in Philadelphia for 2 3/4 hours for weather problems in Detroit, although the woman next to me called her son in Detroit who said no weather problem, and when I arrived in Detroit and I asked if the airport had been closed for bad weather, I was told ‘no’."

Lisa Guliani, co-founder with Victor Thorn of Wing-TV, an Internet alternative to network news, reminded the people that there is no law requiring news people to tell the truth.

"Somebody besides American Free Press has to ride herd on them," she says, "and that’s what we try to do."

~Courtesy of The American Free Press and Pat Shannon

www.americanfreepress.net