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Inquiry faults FBI Oklahoma City probe
FAR TOO MANY QUESTIONS:
A report to be released as soon as tomorrow finds that the bureau did not follow up on other suspects and further credible leads
AP, WASHINGTON
Tuesday, Dec 26, 2006, Page 7
A two-year congressional inquiry into the Oklahoma City bombing concludes that the FBI did not fully investigate whether other suspects may have helped Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols with the deadly 1995 attack, allowing questions to linger a decade later.
The House of Representatives' International Relations investigative subcommittee will release the findings of its two-year review as early as tomorrow, declaring there is no conclusive evidence of a foreign connection to the attack while also saying that far too many unanswered questions remain.
The subcommittee's report will conclude there is no doubt that McVeigh and Nichols were the main perpetrators, and it discloses for the first time that Nichols confirmed to investigators he participated in the robbery of an Arkansas gun dealer that provided the pro-ceeds for the attack.
There have long been questions about that robbery because the FBI concluded McVeigh was in another state at the time it occurred.
The report also sharply criticizes the FBI for failing to be curious enough to pursue credible information that foreign or US citizens may have had contact with Nichols or McVeigh and could have assisted their plot.
"We did our best with limited resources and I think we moved the understanding of this issue forward a couple of notches even though important questions remain unanswered," Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher, the subcommittee chairman, said during an interview.
Rohrabacher's subcommittee saved its sharpest words for the Justice Department, saying officials there tried to thwart congressional oversight and did not assist the investigation fully.
The report rebukes the FBI for not fully pursuing leads suggesting that other suspects may have provided support to McVeigh and Nichols before their truck bomb killed 168 people in the main federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.
The report says the inadequacy of the bureau's work was exposed two years ago when some bombing evidence overlooked for 10 years was discovered in a home linked to Nichols that had been searched repeatedly by agents.
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