Jayna Davis has just published a book called The Third Terrorist, which details her investigation into the links between the Iraqi’s and the Oklahoma City Bombing. I first became aware of her claims in a WSJ article published a couple of years ago. She makes some pretty strong claims, and the book carries an endorsement from former CIA director James Woolsey.
The idea that the Iraqis were involved in this or other domestic terrorist attacks is one that has been dismissed out of hand by the mainstream media. However, I haven’t seen anyone publically comment on Davis or her claims. Should her allegations be taken seriously, or is she just a conspiracy kook out on the fringes?
I haven’t found much independant information about her book available. It has been released by a small publisher that is a division of WorldNetDaily. Most of the coverage is either direct quotes from the publisher or on WND or one of it’s linked websites. WND is not exactly a bastion of centrist jounralistic integrity. They have a definite agenda, and every book they publish supports that agenda. For instance:
I make no claims about any of these books or their theses, but it is evident that the publisher has a specific agenda. Any book from this publisher, written by one of their in-house journalists, is going to reflect that agenda. Just know that going into the book.
As to the question of the substance of her claims, she has to overcome the fact that McVeigh and Nichols were convicted of the crimes “beyond a reasonable doubt” and have had multiple post-conviction reviews. Nichols is currrently on trial in state court for the same event, and his defense team is again raising the issue of unpunished co-conspirators. It is vitally important to note that these putative co-conspirators are not supposed to be Arab terrorists, but other far-right-wing forces. For instance, in arguing for dismissal of the state charges:
So if multiple court proceedings, using a higher standard of evidence than a journalist does, did not substantiate the claim of an Iraqi connection to OK City, that’s a big hurdle for Davis to overcome. Especially if the defendants convicted of the bombing didn’t even raise that claim in their own defense.
Any comments on why the author and her publishers are so interested in making such a claim, or as to whether Davis is “just a conspiracy kook out on the fringes”, would be speculation and hence better suited to GD.
I could have sworn we had a GD thread about this within the last year, but search seems to disagree.
As I recall: a few years back a member of some minor terrorit group was captured in the Phillipines. Under interrogation he mentioned that some other branch of the group he worked with had recruited “two white boys”, or something like that, to carry out an attack on america. That was the limit of her evidence tying McVeigh and Nichols to Islamic Terrorism. Evidence that these two white boys were actually McVeigh and Nichols? None. Evidence from their lives that they ever cooperated with any Islamic group, or had any sympathies to Islamic thinking? None.
As paperbackwriter mentioned, there’s been extensive investigation into McVeigh’s life. We know pretty much all of his movements in the years prior to the Oklahoma City bombing, and we know that he was in communication with right-wing anti-government groups for almost the entire time. It’s difficult to imagine how he would have also found the time to get indoctrinated by Islamic terrorists with a busy schedule like that.