JunkYardBlog

BIZZARE

: Five Israelis, who have since been deported back to Israel, were arrested while taking video and pictures of themselves on Sept 11 as the World Trade Center burned in the background. When arrested and questioned, several identified themselves as members of Israeli intelligence, with a possible mission to spy on radical Islamic groups in the New York area. Check out the linked story--weird stuff.

(thanks to Dave for the heads-up)

PADILLA UPDATE

: According to this story on WorldNetDaily, CIA Saudi intel sources warned in 1995 that an attack on US soil was in the offing:

"Vincent Canastraro, who is the former chief of counter-terrorism for the CIA … called Special Agent Kevin L. Foust and informed him that one of his best sources from Saudi Arabian intelligence specifically advised him that there was a squad of people currently in the United States, very possibly Iraqi, who, and I'm quoting, 'have been tasked with carrying out terrorist acts against the United States,'" Johnston said during an interview on the "Judicial Watch Report" radio program.

"The Saudi informant, who's part of the Saudi counter-terrorism service, told [federal officials] that he had seen the list and that 'first on the list was the federal building in Oklahoma City, Okla.'" Johnston continued.

Like so many other clues in this hunt, by itself it just adds to the growing body of evidence that McVeigh and Nichols had outside help, or may have someone else's "outside help."

Along those lines, I went to the neighborhood bookstore this morning and picked up a copy of Others Unknown, McVeigh defense attorney Stephen Jones' account of the plot to destroy the Murrah Building in 1995. His thesis is that McVeigh and Nichols were certainly at the center of a wide conspiracy, and that McVeigh likely wasn't even the plot's mastermind. I'll likely post reaction to it as I go, with a full review at the end.

(thanks to a few readers who sent this story in today)

ANYBODY THAT QUOTES MIKE ROE

on their blog is alright with me, so Pray Naked Experience gets a perma-link, or a permanent...whatever, a link on the left in that column with all the other links.

PADILLA UPDATE

: John Berger has posted a few new items, including the results of examining Florida traffic records for signs of Jose Padilla's whereabouts in 1994-95. John reports that Padilla racked up a violation on Dec. 28, 1994, then none until June of 1995. It's inconclusive, but does still allow for Padilla to have been someplace other than Florida in April of 1995.

John also points to this piece, in which The Times of London reports that some FBI officials suspect Padilla may have known he was to be arrested when he landed in Chicago May 8th, and may have deliberately walked into the trap. Weird. It doesn't really point to OKC, but does point to the oddness of the whole case. Why would a terrorist deliberately get himself arrested? The article suggests that his arrest was to be a signal for some other terrorists to act, but that makes little sense. Why train an operative just to get him arrested? Maybe he graduated last in his terrorist class? Who knows, but this story has a weird smell to it.

CINQUE

: That would be my name if I converted to Calypso Louie's brand of Islam.

(link via Dodgeblog)

SLATE: THE E-ZINE THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

: The Padilla speculation has earned the JYB a link in Kausfiles. This makes two straight weeks that Slate has linked this site. Thanks, Mickey!

TWO BIRDS, ONE STONE:

James Hudnall says a recent SCOTUS decision should help Ted Turner sleep a little better.

WEBSITE CLAIMS BIN LADEN IS STILL ALIVE

, and will address the Muslim world soon. Here's the full story. Here's why I remain skeptical that the old buzzard is still with us:

The latest comments were posted Wednesday, according to the site, and include a photo of bin Laden kneeling between Abu Ghaith and Ayman Al-Zawahri, bin Laden's Egyptian lieutenant. The picture was taken from a video on Oct. 7, the same day the United States launched its military campaign against Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban and al-Qaida, responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

If he's still not surrounded by his requisite 72 virgins (and 28 little boys, according to Diane), then why not use a picture of more recent vintage? Why not show one that incontrovertibly depicts him, say, yesterday or last week? 'Cause they can't, that's why. I guess we'll know one way or the other soon enough.

PADILLA/IRAQI CONNECTION TO OKC UPDATE

: Fox News' John Gibson weighs in:

...it's clear from the latest Fox News Opinion Dynamics poll that the American public supports action against Saddam by a huge, huge margin: 75 percent for — 14 percent against. In electoral politics that's a landslide.

But what do you think those numbers would be if it turns out reporter Jayna Davis is right? If the Iraqis were behind the Oklahoma City bombing, and Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols were in fact so called 'lilly whites' recruited to act as fronts for Muslim or Iraqi, or maybe even Iranian, terror against the U.S. heartland.

And what if it turns out that Tim McVeigh, as a matter of pride and profound embarrassment, would never admit, never let it be known that he was acting in concert with, or on behalf of an actual enemy of the United States — Iraq — an enemy that he personally fought against?

Or what if he was so worried about the fate of his beloved sister if he ever confessed that John Doe No. 2 was in fact hussein alhussani, the Iraqi identified by Jayna Davis?

How much angrier would the American public be to learn that the horror of April '95 was in fact Iraqi terror, carried under the shroud of two disgruntled, ticked off at the feds over David Koresh, white guys?

There's more, and it's good stuff. John closes with the hope that prosecutors get to the bottom of OKC soon.

My take: They have those surveillance tapes. They have Padilla, and they have the names and addresses of all the OKC witnesses. It's therefore likely that they already have the answer, whatever it is.

(thanks to reader Chris Regan for the heads up)

DENNIS MILLER, FONT OF WISDOM

: From The Tonight Show:

“And you know something, the American Civil Liberties Union, when they come out and say you never profile anybody who gets on an airplane. I say we create a new airline, called the ACLA, the American Civil Liberties Airline where you don’t check anybody, you don’t ask any questions, and let those morons fly on that one, okay? The rest of us want to be protected.”

(via C-Log)

SURELY YOU JEST

: Arafat now says he'll take the deal that Ehud Barak and Pres. Clinton offered him a couple of years ago.

A. Why does this pond scum think he can just take a do-over for the last two years of violence?

B. Why does he think anyone will be fooled this time around?

CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR

: The US soccer team is out of the World Cup, having played well but ultimately coming up short against soccer-power Germany, 1-0. Reader Alonzo Font sends in this reaction from a fan who sees the political implications of America's defeat:

JYB:
US team acquitted itself excellently against Germany. Great game, good sportsmanship.
As usual the Yahoo message system has comments of all stripes; the following is priceless (hope it's original):

quote
US loss is Bush's fault
by: opinionated_asswhole (M/middle america) 06/21/02 09:59 am
Msg: 203 of 311

Leading democrats have announced that the Bush Administration was well aware of the impending loss in the World Cup before it took place yet failed to inform the American public. Tom Daschle, leader of the Senate was quoted as saying "Yet again the Bush administration has failed to prepare the American public that a loss was about to take place. There were warning signs everywhere but he failed to connect the dots." Congressional democrats are calling for a complete investigation and hearings as early as next week.

TRIFECTA

: Bill Quick vs Spinsanity. I think Bill's got the goods.

FACELESS NO MORE

: It's easy, too easy, to get jaded to the latest act of Palestinian barbarism. This makes it much harder.

(link via InstaPundit)

GRANTING THE PALESTINIANS A STATE

: I have to say that I agree with this editorial. Giving Arafat and his minions a state rewards them for murdering civilians. They've proven repeatedly they don't deserve a country, can't run one, can't even get along with the actual Palestinian state (run by Hashemites) on the other side of the mountains. All they can do is kill innocent people.

So why is the Bush Administration seemingly set to deliver nationhood to Palestine? I think it's to prevent an ethnic cleansing--Israel will eventually tire of this back-and-forth, saddle up and chase each and every Palestinian over the mountains. No one wants that, perhaps not least of all the country on the other side, Jordan, and it's not likely to work anyway. Granted a nation, the PA will demand something else, gin up another holocaust intifida, and the bloody game will begin anew.

THE LAND OF THE WEAK

: First dodgeball gets bounced, now one school says kids can't even play tag. Here's a quote from someone who should step down from any position of responsibility, anywhere:

"We had some children who were not playing 'it' appropriately. How do you differentiate between those that are playing correctly and those that aren't?" asked Franklin Elementary School Principal Pat Samarge.

Not surprisingly at all, this school is in California. What kind of kids do they think they're raising out there?

HOW CONSERVATIVE AM I?

I scored a 37.

(thanks to Cut on the Bias for the link)

ANOTHER PADILLA-INFECTED SITE

: Glenn Beck seems to have started in on this story last week. I think his site was the one shown on Today a day or so ago. That story, by the way, is on online here. It's the usual big-media take--no insight or real reporting, just regurgitating the same-old same-old.

I haven't watched Today since discovering Fox & Friends a year or so ago. What's the deal with Matt Lauer's hair?

FBI MEMO CLAIMS MOHAMMED ATTA

mailed the anthrax letters last fall, or wrote them and had others mail them after 9-11. Here it is, on Instapundit. Am I the only one that finds this passage disturbing?

Why was Atta the likely writer?

Obviously, from the media reports he was the leader of the 19 hijackers and thus in the best position to know what was going on and the one most likely to be entrusted with the anthrax. But further, especially if one gives merit to the suggested sequence of the writing of the letters, the Brokaw and Post letter singular because they are the same letter) were written last. The writer at that point would be more certain of his message and what he was doing. The writing is more open and widely spaced, indicating that he is more at ease with what he is doing.

"...from the media reports..." These guys, the actual FBI, are basing their findings on media reports? Given the cluelessness the media has demonstrated over the past few months (which is largely responsible for the rise of blogging as alternative media), I would hope that the FBI would know more about terrorists than the media, not less. Since 9-11 I've often wondered how it is that we know Atta was the leader, assuming that the FBI or CIA had something more than what had been reported. Apparently not. If this memo is genuine, and if it's really a more or less exhaustive summary of the anthrax investigation, the FBI is in no better shape than INS, and should be razed and rebuilt.

UPDATE: I know, I screwed this one up. Reading without comprehending--and chewing on foot.

BUSTED. Really busted.

RE: THE LATEST OUTRAGES IN ISRAEL

: I'm agreeing with what she said.

IS CONGRESS SCARED OF THE FBI?

This story attempts to explain Congress' lack of criticism regarding the FBI since 9-11, especially as recent relevations have shown that the Bureau had some strong indications that 9-11 was coming. I'm not an FBI-basher by any means, but if this story is true (a big "if"), it would explain a lot. It would also highlight a real and potentially dangerous problem--how do we reform the FBI when its overseeing authority is scared to touch it?

PADILLA UPDATE:

I've gotten this one from several readers today--the AP is reporting that, prior to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the FBI and CIA received several warnings that Islamic terrorists were planning to strike at buildings that symbolized the federal government, and on US soil.

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 1995 intelligence was specific enough that "if that was today, you'd have (Bush Homeland Security Director) Tom Ridge going out and saying we have this threat," said former Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., who in 1995 was a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

There are a few interesting relevations in that story, none of which directly implicate Padilla in the 1995 bombing, but which do cast more doubt on the official story--that McVeigh and Nichols acted largely alone.

MOROCCO REELS IN A BIG ONE:

The Moroccan government has apprehended Abu Zubair al-Haili, a 300-lb Saudi who, among other things, was a big al Qaida recruiter. He also ran training camps in Afghanistan, and apparently helped the great escape from Afghanistan during the heaviest fighting there last year. In those three capacities, getting this huge guy is a huge break.

PADILLA UPDATE

: John Berger send in this one from The San Antonio Lightning, and it's a bit of a hair-raiser:

The man who testified that he rented the "death" truck to Timothy McVeigh
has confirmed that he has seen the photo and sketch comparisons of "John
Doe" and accused "Dirty Bomber" Jose Padilla, but tells the
Lightning that he will withhold comment for now on advice of legal counsel.

Eldon Elliott, was the owner of Elliott's Body Shop, a Ryder truck outlet in
Junction City, Kansas, the day Tim McVeigh and another man rented the
vehicle that carried destruction to the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in
1995. He and two employees said there was another man with McVeigh.

WILL YOU PEOPLE QUIT MOVING AROUND

: I've update the links to the blog formerly known as Regurgablog and Midwest Conservative Journal. Next blogger that changes URLs gets a sound beating with a sockfull of quarters.

BLOGGED IN BRUSSELS

: Bored programmer Maarten Schenk has posted his take on the Padilla question. He takes a fairly common line as to McVeigh and the death penalty, which is that if only we hadn't executed him, he'd be here to tell us. I don't buy it--McVeigh had multiple opportunities to rat out other participants, and never did. It would have diminished his own role, and that runs against the grain of a megalomaniac like McVeigh.

On the other hand, the FBI has in its paws a collection of surveillance tapes which could either prove or disprove, once and for all, whether John Doe #2 existed in the first place. A camera in a Subway shop that employed one witness, and cameras mounted on the Murrah building, caught McVeigh and anyone else with him. The FBI is alive and well and has the "smoking gun." I think we should stop pondering what McVeigh would tell us, both because he's dead and because he wouldn't likely tell us anything if he were alive, and start pondering why the FBI won't release those tapes. As I said in my initial detailed post on this subject, and a couple more times since then, the FBI already knows the answer to both questions--whether John Doe #2 existed, and if Jose Padilla is John Doe #2. They already know what we want to know, and that may in fact explain why they won't release the tapes--they're more relevant now than they have been in a long time.

JUNKYARDBRAG

: This site is comparing my rantings re Jose Padilla with Woodward and Bernstein's Nixon take-down, which was in its own way the ultimate Fisking. Lofty company, probably not deserved, but thank you.

PADILLA UPDATE

: Mark Steyn weighs in:

Abdullah Padilla is the absolute spitting image of the FBI artist's impression of "John Doe No. 2," a swarthy guy wanted as a supposed "co-conspirator" in the Oklahoma City bombing but conveniently forgotten along the way. This was after Bill Clinton decided to save his Presidency by making Tim McVeigh the poster boy for home-grown angry right-wing gun nuts, thereby leaving no place for mysterious Middle Eastern connections in the official narrative. McVeigh, though, told people that it was the "Iraqi suffering" he'd witnessed during the Gulf War which made him think the government for which he soldiered was a global bully. Far from the stereotypical white supremacist, he seems to have been the biggest Arabist in the American militia movement. If he was solely responsible, how come everything he did before the explosion was so smart and everything he did afterwards was so stupid?

You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to see certain patterns at work. Whoever's behind al-Qaeda seems to be very adroit at scheduling distractions -- first, this spring's flare-up on the West Bank; then, Kashmir -- and, after all, most terrorist networks boil down to a handful of masterminds manipulating whatever gullible twerps are to hand. Even poor deceased Osama bin Laden seems likely to prove to have been merely the front-man moron for slyer, more official forces. Abu Zubaydah, the bin Laden sidekick now in U.S. custody, is the man who fingered Padilla, but his previous insider tip-offs have consisted mostly of diabolical plots lifted from the remake of Godzilla. Do al-Qaeda get most of their ideas from Hollywood or is he playing the Feds for a bunch of infidel saps? Mr. Padilla is almost certainly of no importance, just some despised taco-breathed terrorist wannabe a top-dog Islamist like Zubaydah had reasons to sell out.

Unless, of course, Prisoner 2,401 really is "John Doe No. 2" --which is about the only scenario under which last week's fevered Ashcroft/Bush hype makes any sense.

(thanks to Chris Regan for the heads-up)

TALIBAN WEB SITE UPDATE

: It has been suspended. Either we topped out their poll, or they got a phone call from Homeland Security. I'm hoping for the latter, considering that their ownership was American.

And since this site was linked to the Taliban site, it's probably worth a look too. It's hosted in Egypt and apparently either Kuwaiti or Saudi in ownership, but had links to the American-owned Taliban site through its photo gallery.

UPDATE: They're back online. Dang it, I thought we'd bagged one.

UPDATE: Suspended again. May be server problems, or poll problems, or police problems.

DON'T WORRY ABOUT SADDAM'S MISSILES

: That's Bill Clinton's message to President Bush. The fair-haired boy ex-president apparently thinks the current president is worried that Saddam will launch a missile from Baghdad to, I dunno, Austin or something. Earth to Bill Clinton: that's not the worry. Worry #1 is that he'll launch a missile at Tel Aviv. That's a valid worry because, ya know, he's done it before. Worry #2 is that he'll build a nuke and get it slipped into our territory for "final testing." Worry #3 is that Saddam will build a nuke, announce that he has it, and hold all of his oil-rich neighbors, and therefore the world economy, hostage. There are lots of things to worry about when thinking about Saddam Hussein, but envisioning him launching a missile on a non-stop route from his back yard to ours isn't one of them, at least not yet.

You'd know that if you'd spent less time with "that woman" and more time doing your job.

PADILLA UPDATE

: Israel was aware of him before 9-11, though only in a passive sense.

TOM TOMORROW

, twit. Ok, ok, that was a bit harsh, but the guy's out there knocking his fellow bloggers and taking up sides with the likes of Ed Asner--that's reason enough for a little name-calling right there. Rather than zap him myself, I'll link you to Crooow Blog, who does a fine job of it himself.

Oh, and since lots of folks are coming here for conspiracy theories these days, here's one to chew on: Tom takes on his fellow bloggers to drive up his own hit counts. He accuses all of us of being lame or without substance, whatever, gets enough people mad at him, they all say mean things and link to him, and PRESTO the hit counter twirls till it smokes. Tom basks in his anonymous notoriety, lives to irritate another day.

OLIVER STONE, MEET JOHNNY FEVER

: That's what it's been like running the JYB for the past week. Conspiracy theories abound, and I have the unsettling feeling that, for the first time, this web site is actually getting noticed, worldwide. I know, the Johnny Fever reference is lost on most of you, so here's the explanation.

Dr. Johnny Fever was the air name of a DJ at the fictional WKRP radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. WKRP was a perennial ratings bottom-feeder, and Dr. Fever was therefore free to say and do pretty much anything he pleased on his show. In the age of disco, which was the age of WKRP in Cininnati, Johnny Fever played classic rock. He was a love 'em and leave 'em type, he dissed the station's news guy, Les Nesman, and ran roughshod over the station's carefully-developed format. Johnny Fever was my hero when I entered radio many years ago.

One day Dr. Fever gets into a fit of picque over a garbage strike in the city, so in the course of running his radio show he tells his audience to drop all their garbage on the steps of city hall. On a normal day, whether his tiny audience followed him or not wouldn't make much difference, but this was no normal day--people were actually listening, and those people told their friends, and they told their friends. Pretty soon, the entire population of Cincinnati dumps their garbage at city hall, everyone's calling the station to cheer Johnny Fever on, and the station's management is scared stiff that all of this will blow back on them. Instead of suddenly feeling popular and loved, Johnny Fever gets a massive case of stage fright, and can't continue his show.

On Tuesday of last week, my initial post on Jose Padilla got linked in NRO and Instapundit, driving over 6,000 readers my way. That marked an increase of something like 600% from the day before. On Wednesday and Thursday, Slate linked me and the stats hit nearly 10,000--both days. Since then, things have levelled off to around 2,000 a day, presumably as my posting frequency has decreased on the Padilla question, as folks have lost interest, and as the big site links have gotten stale. Through all of this, I've gotten email from some very interesting folks, ranging from cheers to jeers and from the serious to the strange. And I've gotten labelled as a conspiracy buff, a white male chauvanist, an intrepid blogger, an internet gumshoe, and probably a few dozen other things I haven't run across. And in the blogosphere ecosystem, I went from a slithtering reptile to a large mammal. Not bad, considering the whole thing started from a simple picture post.

Well, after a hurricane of a week, here's my take on Padilla, Oklahoma City and al Qaida. Padilla is unlikely to have been involved in Oklahoma City. I can't prove he wasn't there, and can't even prove yet that he wasn't available to help out, but the likelihood of Jose Padilla being John Doe #2 is fairly remote, for the simple reason that there's nothing solid connecting him to it. He fits the description of several JD#2 witnesses, and I am still interested in what the JD#2 witnesses have to say about Padilla, but in the absence of a smoking gun, I just can't say I'm convinced that he's the guy. I'm not giving up, but that's my opinion of the case to date.

As for Tim McVeigh, Terry Nichols and a possible Middle East connection to their deed, my thinking has changed in the past week. I once considered them to have acted largely alone, with some minor input from Michael Fortier and others, but with no international help. I no longer believe that to be the case. The two had outside help, either directly from al Qaida or indirectly, and that help likely has Iraqi fingerprints at some stage. I haven't pinned down in my own mind the nature of that help, but I believe it was there at some level. Terry Nichols' travels to the Philippines, and his apparent connections to BIF, add up to something more than the official record of events. How much more I can't say, and I'm still looking into it, but I believe that there is more to this story.

So there you have it. As always, if you have something to say or share about this, my comments section is always open, and you can email me at junkyardblog@hotmail.com. Hopefully no one takes this as a swan song on the Padilla case. It's more like a status report. The story is still out there, and I'm still pursuing it, but to date it's simply a very interesting story that has yet to find proof for or against.

PADILLA UPDATE:

This one's from Josh Marshall, and it's actually pretty funny. Turns out South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges is using Padilla's presence in a South Carolina brig as a excuse to stop the transportation of weapons-grade plutonium. It seems to be a Yucca Mountain-type manuever, aimed at keeping the stuff out of his state altogether. Marshall links this story to the antics of John C. Calhoun and to the Civil War. Good post.

PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH, ARAFAT

: An interesting passage from the Palestinian Declaration of Independence:

The State of Palestine herewith declares that it believes in the settlement of regional and international disputes by peaceful means, in accordance with the U.N. Charter and resolutions. With prejudice to its natural right to defend its territorial integrity and independence, it therefore rejects the threat or use of force, violence and terrorism against its territorial integrity or political independence, as it also rejects their use against territorial integrity of other states.

It was signed by Palestinian leaders Nov 15, 1988--nearly 14 years and hundreds of war-crime bombers ago.

SO QUESTIONING THE FBI'S OFFICIAL

handling of cases is now a suspect activity? Don't tell the editorial side of the Wall Street Journal,OpinionJournal, which published this story about the sorry state of the agency's most-wanted terrorist list. It's a sham:

Despite the president's talk of wanting the terrorists "dead or alive," the FBI's most-wanted list is an embarrassment. Shaikh Saiid, Osama's brother-in-law, hasn't made the list, even though he was included in a list of nine al Qaeda members handed out to soldiers searching bombed-out caves in Afghanistan, nor has Mustafa Ahmed al-Hisawi, bin Laden's financial officer. The day after Christmas, Kenton Keith, a coalition spokesman in Pakistan, reportedly gave journalists a chart of al Qaeda's brain trust. It had 42 names, six of which were crossed out, having been killed in combat in Afghanistan. Four more have been captured. That leaves 32 high-ranking al Qaeda leaders. The FBI lists only 22 men. Shouldn't we be looking for all of the al Qaeda leadership?
Shouldn't we also consider top Talib Mullah Mohammed Omar a "most wanted" terrorist? The president promised to make no distinction between terrorists and those who harbor them. Omar was last seen a few weeks ago crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan, shaking his fist and promising to disrupt the process of choosing Afghanistan's new government before heading south again.

Then there are the problems with the names on the list. The FBI still lists Mohammad Atef, even though a smart bomb caught him at home in November. He didn't survive the blast, but enough of his house did for U.S. forces to find the martyr videos. The bureau lists Osama bin Laden as a Saudi citizen, but the House of Saud revoked his citizenship years ago. Kuwait also disputes the FBI's claim that Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, now considered the top planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, is a Kuwaiti.

Meanwhile not one of the 22 wanted posters mentions the Sept. 11 attacks. Bin Laden, according to the FBI, is wanted in the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa and also "is a suspect in other terrorist attacks throughout the world."

The Journal is right to jump on this. As their story indicates, a list as shoddy as this says one thing to the world: We're not serious about catching terrorists. Couple that with our idiotic airport "security" measures, and we're really sending the wrong message: We're not serious, and we're not even trying to be.

(thanks to reader Chris Regan for the tip)

THE TALIBAN'S WEB SITE

, Taliban Online, is owned by an American according to an alert reader. Hmmmm. Lending aid and comfort to the enemy, anyone? By the way, thanks to a whole bunch of bloggers and readers, we've nearly caught up on that poll. It's 51-48--come on, kaffirs, let's get over the top.

LAST CENTURY'S MEDIA

is starting to report on the Padilla/John Doe #2 story, and predictably its coverage to date has been snarky and condescending. It's as though if you don't accept everything the government tells you about a given incident, well you just might as well strap on the tinfoil hat and be done with it. First up, the Wall Street Journal interviewed me last Friday, and I made clear that I have no "conspiracy theory," and in fact no theory at all, in the Padilla case. I'm not even sure if I think Padilla has any connection at all to the Oklahoma City bombing, but with his resemblance to the John Doe #2 sketches and other circumstantial evidence floating around out there, it's practically irresponsible not to ask questions. So the Journal publishes their story, and thankfully Free Republic has posted the entire text. It's a flippant story, and its title gives its aim away--"Conspiracy Buffs See Similarities Between Jose Padilla, John Doe 2." Sorry, but I'm no "conspiracy buff." Conspiracy theories have too many moving parts, rely on people to perform with superhuman competence to maintain secrecy, and studying them is mostly a waste of time. I even think regular magazines like Insight have gone too far in assessing motives to the various players in the OK City bombing investigation, but never mind that, I'm asking questions so I'm lumped in with conspiracy buffs.

But at least he quoted me accurately. I'll give him that much. And he linked me, but so far no one from their site has made it into mine. Links from NRO, Slate and Instapundit sent and are still sending torrents of traffic my way--the Journal hasn't even sent a trickle.

Fox News and CNN have also run stories today. I caught the one on Fox this afternoon, in which former Oklahoma State Rep. Charles Key was interviewed, and he made the case that the FBI could put this whole thing to bed by releasing the video surveillance tapes from the Murrah building, and the Subway shop where witness Joann Van Buren claims to have seen John Doe #2. I made a similar case, obliquely, in my initial detailed post on the issue, and it's true--the FBI has those tapes, and releasing them would either confirm another man in the company of Tim McVeigh and/or Terry Nichols or refute it. It would at the same time finish up any lingering questions about Jose Padilla. I guess that makes too much sense. The interviewer asked Mr. Key about the one John Doe #2 story that the FBI has been able to refute, parroted the FBI line that John Doe #2 likely never existed, but never followed up on any of the dozens of other witness sightings. That's just lazy reporting.

You can probably tell I'm a bit annoyed about this, though hardly surprised. It just seems to me that, with all its resources and fancy J-school grads, the big media could treat a fairly serious story with a fair amount of seriousness. I guess that's just beyond them.

WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Unbelievable!!!

MORE ABOUT THE MIDDLE EASTERN CONNECTION TO OKLAHOMA CITY

: Again, from Insight Magazine:

As if anticipating new developments on the terrorism front, CIA Director Tenet told the Senate Armed Services Committee in unusually frank testimony on March 19 that the United States now is actively examining potential Iraqi and Iranian involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"As to where we are in [investigating] Sept. 11, the jury's out," Tenet told senators. "And it would be a mistake to dismiss the possibility of state sponsorship, whether Iranian or Iraqi, and we'll see where the evidence takes us."

The evidence could take the CIA and the White House to both Middle Eastern states, as Tenet made clear. "The distinctions between Sunni and Shia [Islam] that have traditionally divided terrorist groups are not distinctions you should make anymore because there is a common interest against the United States and its allies in this region, and they will seek capability wherever they can get it," he said. Saddam Hussein and his governing Baathist elite are predominantly Sunni, while neighboring Iran is majority Shiite. Both have helped Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, U.S. counterterrorism officials now believe.

The only thing missing here is a reference to Wahhabism, another offshoot of Islam with dangerous tendencies, but it's clear that pursuing a Middle Eastern connection to McVeigh and Nichols is no longer the exclusive territory of cranks and misfits.

PADILLA UPDATE

: NewsMax has become the first mainstream site to publish a story covering the possible link between Jose Padilla and John Doe #2, and for the most part offers up the ideas already present here and on John Berger's site. But, here's a new piece of the puzzle:

Larry Johnson, a former senior State Department counterterrorism official, says witnesses place al Qaeda members at the same Oklahoma motel where the 1995 bomb plot was hatched.

Then there's last month's little noticed but potentially devastating report in Insight Magazine, which revealed that Abdul Hakim Murad, a key member of the Philippine cell, actually confessed to the FBI that al Qaeda was behind the 1995 bombing just hours after it happened.

Remember, it was the Philippine cell led by Ramzi Yusuf that masterminded the never-completed terror attack involving a dozen US airliners, and that same Ramzi Yusuf is now serving life in prison for leading the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Another dot, another possible connection.

Here's the relevant passage of Insight's story:

The video interrogation (of Edward Angeles who according to Insight's story was working as a double-agent for the Philippine government as an informant on Abu Sayyaf activities, an al Qaida cell he had helped establish) linking Nichols to Yousef, bin Laden and Iraq initially was obtained by Stephen Jones, the defense attorney who represented convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. But at the insistence of federal prosecutors, trial judge Richard P. Matsch refused to admit it into evidence.

The judge also refused to admit into evidence the testimony of Yousef coconspirator Abdul Hakim Murad, who was a federal prisoner at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. Murad was awaiting trial for his part in Project Bojinka, a plot hatched up by Yousef to blow up 11 U.S. 747 jetliners over the Pacific Ocean in 1995. On the day of the Oklahoma City bombing he told his jailers that Yousef had orchestrated the plot.

"Why should Murad be believed?" Johnston asks rhetorically. "For one thing, Murad made his 'confession' voluntarily and spontaneously. Most important, Murad tied Ramzi Yousef to the Oklahoma City bombing long before Terry Nichols was publicly identified as a suspect."

Here is Elmina's deathbed confession, in which she details her huband's alleged meetings with Ramzi Yusuf and an American called "Terry" or "the Farmer."

Insight's reporting on the Oklahoma City bombing goes much further into conspiracy-land than I'm comfortable with, but the facts they present are well sourced.

THE TALIBAN VS THE KAFFIRS POLL

: Thanks to you (and the readers of a couple dozen other sites), we're gaining ground in the Taliban web site's poll of who'll win the war. When I first found it this afternoon, thanks to a reader, it was 63% for the Taliban, 36% for us, and 1% undecided. Now it's 55-45-1, so we're still ten points down but closing fast. If you haven't voted, why not head on over and vote now? We drove 'em from Afghanistan, now let's drive 'em crazy on their own web turf.

PADILLA UPDATE:

John Berger's done it again, this time placing Tim McVeigh in South Florida in 1993, coinciding with Jose Padilla's time of residence there, and Padilla's career working at a local Taco Bell. This is far, far from a "smoking gun," but does get the two in the same area a couple of years before the OK City bombing.

PADILLA UPDATE

: Extremely alert reader Chris Regan found this timeline of Jose Padilla's movements and whereabouts on FreeRepublic.com:

1993 – Sunrise, FL – end of 1 yr supervised release on 8/4/93

1993 – FL – converted to Islam after release

1993 - 1998 Lauderhill, FL – moved in with then-girlfriend Cherie Marie Stulz to Inverrary Club Apartments

1995 – Pembroke Pines, FL – studied Islam at Darul Uloom Institute mosque, took Sat. morning courses for 3-6 months using the name “Ibrahim” until the “extremely observant Muslim” “disappeared”

1996 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Married Stulz at Courthouse on 1/2/96, where he signed his name as simply “Ibrahim”

1996 – FL – driver’s license suspended

1997 – FL – speeding conviction

1998 – FL – left United States

1998 – FL – left United States for good

It's well sourced, and indicates that in 1995 he "disappeared." We need to know when in 1995 he disappeared, and if that mosque has any knowledge of his whereabouts in April of 1995.

FOR THOSE OF YOU

who thought my National Review piece was off the mark, President Bush seems to see things my way. Covert action is but one of many tools at our disposal, and shouldn't be discounted, if only for the psychological effect they can have on Saddam.

As for speculation regarding Saddam's WMD programs, the Kurds also see things my way, and having been on the receiving end of Saddam's violence, they would know.

NEW BLOG IN THE YARD

: At the top of the list at the left, just under the JunkYardSwag link, is Who is John Doe No. 2?. John Berger is compiling the latest up-to-date information there, from this site, his own work and from news media reports. It's pretty comprehensive, and recommended.

PADILLA UPDATE

: An alleged crony of his has been arrested in Florida. And this associate has ties to the BIF, which has possible ties to Terry Nichols.

(Thanks to John Horne and John Berger for the tip)

ISLAMIC WEBSURFING:

Sorry the lack of posting for the last couple of days. I've had non-cyber pursuits keeping me busy. Here's an Islamic souvenir hunt for you: First, go to this site, an apparently middle-of-the road magazine for the Muslim believer called Al-Islam. Now, go to this site, which is the Taliban's official web presence. Yes, they have one, and it's a doozy of a site, full of language like "kafir" to describe us, and it makes some propaganda mileage out of that idiotic artist's coalitition agains the war. Nice going, Ed Asner--you're an apologist for the Taliban and Usama bin Laden now. Anyway, on the Taliban's site follow the link for "Foto Gallery." It's below the map, about center. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, and you'll see a very interesting link for photo submissions...

So is the first site I directed you to so moderate? And who runs it? Their site host is Egyptian.

(by the way, there's a poll at the top of that Taliban site that demands a serious Freeping...)