MURDER IN THE HEARTLAND
"THEY LET IT HAPPEN"
Fed Informant Documents Treason in OKC Bombing
by Pat ShannanAs a self-confessed "international importer and domestic transporter," Cary Gagan, 54, admits that he is "no choir boy." But neither is he a cold-blooded killer, he is quick to add. As a government informant with an immunity grant, he took every step he could to help the federal government stop the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, of which he had solid prior knowledge, but "they let it happen," says Gagan. "They" were the FBI, the United States Attorney, and many agents of the U. S. Marshals Service.
On March 13th, Mr. Gagan gave a two-hour deposition before a newly formed citizen's committee known as the Oklahomans for Truth. A court stenographer and videographer were present.
Upon viewing the tape, Denver Whistle Blower Stewart Webb said, "These well documented charges amount to no less than treasonous acts by those sworn to `defend and protect against all enemies foreign and domestic.' These people should be tried and, if found guilty, swiftly executed."
Prosecutors would later make a big noise about the ANFO bomb being built at Geary Lake State Park in Kansas. (Count 35 of the eventual indictment reads: "On or about April 18, 1995, at Geary Lake State Park in Kansas, McVEIGH and NICHOLS constructed an explosive truck bomb with barrels filled with a mixture of ammonium nitrate, fuel and other explosives placed in the cargo compartment of the rental truck.") But it is Cary Gagan's testimony that he, under instructions from a federal agent, delivered a mixer and what he believes to have been bombing materials to a service station in Dwight, Kansas on April 10th, nine days prior to the Murrah explosions.
A former acquaintance who happened to be in the right place at the right time - this time in March of 1994 - Gagan had again met two Middle Easterners named "Omar" and "Ahmad" for whom he had once performed some undercover favors while they all were involved in international "importing." In September, Omar, Ahmad, and a third, yet un-named conspirator paid Cary Gagan $250,000 to haul 15-20 timers and detonators across the border from Mexico. Six months into this new relationship, Gagan saw the blueprints of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City spread out on the motel room desk and listened to a discussion "in either Arabic or another foreign language." Gagan speaks only English, but by this time realized that an attack was about to occur sometime in the near future.
On September 14, 1994, immediately after receiving the suitcase full of cash, Gagan went to the U. S. Marshals and obtained a grant of immunity from the United States Attorney, Henry Solano. He was allowed to keep the money and the immunity from prosecution was supposed to be in exchange for keeping the authorities informed. It may be the only grant of immunity in a domestic terrorism case in the history of America. The Justice Department would later regret having issued it and still has not washed the egg from its own face for doing so. But Cary Gagan went to work as a federal informant, thinking he would be able to prevent the upcoming terrorism. An opportunist, he was aware of federal statutes providing for between $500,000 and $2,000,000 in reward money for preventing an act of domestic terrorism.
Over the course of the next six months, Gagan was perplexed by the lack of interest in the information he was providing. No one was returning his phone calls - not the U. S. Attorney, not the Marshals, not the FBI. Nor could he understand why he was never polygraphed, a standard operating procedure for law enforcement officials before issuing immunity to informants.
"Even my attorney told me before I went in the first time, `Gagan, they're going to polygraph you,' and I said, `Fine, let's get after it. Let's just do it.' But they never did, and they're supposed to."
(After the building was blown out, Brig. Gen. Ben Patron and other demolition experts showed with graphic evidence beyond a reasonable doubt how the building was blown from the inside. At least four charges were detonated at strategic columns on the third floor level, dumping the higher floors into the second floor nursery. Gen. Partin emphatically asserts, "This is not conjecture, and it is not a theory. This is the way it the building came down." Gagan's testimony finally fingers a potential source.)
Next, the federales labeled Gagan as a "mental case," but even in this alleged state of dementia, he has litigated and prevailed over the Colorado Attorney General in recent court cases. Once, when he was in custody in a separate case, he was relegated to the funny farm for thirty days observation and tests. The results showed that he was of above average intelligence with no paranoia, etc., and capable of speaking for himself in courtroom argument. Indeed, he was. According to Gagan, the Attorney General had altered trial transcripts before passing the case on to the Appellate Court. The U. S. Supreme Court reversed the conviction in favor of Gagan on these grounds, but no disciplinary action was taken against the prosecutors, who settled with him out of court.
OKLAHOMANS FOR TRUTH
In October of 1995, grand jury member Hoppy Heidelberg was removed from duty without cause by Federal Judge David Russell. Of course, Heidelberg and all close observers knew the real cause was Heidelberg's persistence in asking too many sensitive questions about the Oklahoma City bombing case. He had sat on that jury since the previous January, three months prior to the explosions at Murrah.
Frustrated at the U. S. Attorney's reluctance to pursue anything which did not point toward the guilt of Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols, Heidelberg had written a letter to Judge Russell outlining what was being ignored and should be investigated by that grand jury.
"I thought it was the grand jury's job to investigate, but I was learning more about this case from reading the newspaper and watching television than I was from sitting in on the closed sessions on the panel," Heidelberg says from his horse ranch today.
"Defiant Grand Juror Pulled From Okla. City Bombing Case," barked the front page of USA Today. Following Heidelberg's 2-page letter citing 11 pivotal points of neglected investigation, Judge Russell responded with one curt paragraph: "Effective immediately, you are dismissed from the grand jury. Your obligation of secrecy continues. Any disclosure of matters that occurred before the grand jury constitutes a contempt of court. Each violation of the obligation of secrecy may be punished cumulatively. Sincerely, David L. Russell, United States District Judge."
When it became evident that the second impaneled grand jury in OKC was going to be another whitewash, the non-profit corporation named "Oklahomans for Truth Committee" was formed by Heidelberg, who was now more "defiant" than ever to get to the truth. In the fall of last year, he also ran an ill-financed campaign for governor, in hopes of meeting Gov. Frank Keating in debate, but it was not to be. On election day, Heidelberg's vote count was insignificant.
Only hours after the Murrah explosions, Gov. Keating was seen on national television announcing the fact that unexploded bombs had been discovered and were hauled from the Murrah Building for examination. He confidently assured Americans that all of these bombs carry "signatures" and as soon as the experts could examine them, "We will know exactly who is responsible for this." He has never mentioned this in a public statement again.
Later, when confronted with the evidence that the bombs could not have been ANFO, Keating responded to a reporter, "I really don't care if the bomb was fertilizer or not, it's irrelevant to me!" (With reference to the murdered Branch Davidians in Waco, Keating is reported to have also insensitively stated, "If you expect me to feel sorry for those people, I'm not. Those people, including the 17 children, got everything they deserved." Reported by Louis O'Neal from conversation in the Governor's office.)
This very important point is not irrelevant to Hoppy Heidelberg and the Oklahomans for Truth. If the bomb was not fertilizer - and experts continue to point out that it certainly was not - then the conviction and death sentence of Tim McVeigh is a travesty of justice. But Keating, formerly an FBI agent, federal prosecutor, and high-ranking BATF official in Washington, has been mending public relations fences for the government ever since his slip of the tongue on April 19th 1995. The same man who publicly announced that "this was a very sophisticated operation by a very sophisticated group of people," soon was cheering the convictions of two very unsophisticated farm boys. "These two bottom-crawlers pulled this off and there is nothing more to be said - except that they should be convicted and executed as quickly as possible." (Los Angeles Times, 1/28/96, 15 months before the trial McVeigh trial began.)
At a self-aggrandizing moment, when asked about how the nation may be viewing Oklahoma since the bombings, Keating cites a statement by Army General Norman Schwartzkopf, while they were on a hunting trip together.
"You know," said the General, "I've been in big wars and little wars, big tragedies and little tragedies, and big operations and little operations, but I have not seen anything handled with the professionalism, the skill of the community, and the tremendous efficiency of this city."
Keating's history of such delusions of grandeur has former State Rep. Charles Key, Hoppy Heidelberg and others wondering 1] if such a conversation really took place; 2] if Schwartzkopf would remember it, and 3] if it really did, just what those two might have been smoking on their hunting trip that afternoon.
On March 13, 1999, Oklahomans for the Truth Committee took the depositions of Cary James Gagan of Denver, Colorado and Jane Graham of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mrs. Graham was the HUD employee and union president who noticed some suspicious characters in the Murrah Building both days and minutes prior to the tragedy. It was two years later before she saw the same people on a video copy of TV news stories. Her story was chronicled by Media Bypass and other publications in 1998.
Jane Graham, 55, worked for HUD on the 7th floor of the Murrah Building. She was also president of the employees union. At a few minutes before nine o'clock that fateful morning, she took the elevator to the 9th floor to participate in a computer seminar. Her sworn testimony confirms that of hundreds of others who heard and/or saw two distinct explosions.
At 9:02 a.m. she had just sat down and turned on her computer when she felt a rumble for several seconds. Initially thinking it was an earthquake, she sat frozen until a fellow worker announced, "That's a bomb! Get under your desk!" Mrs. Graham quickly complied before a second explosion ripped up through the center of the building "like a rocket being launched" and the ceiling came tumbling down on top of them. She estimates there was a time span of something less than ten seconds between the two.
But Jane Graham had seen more in the days and hours prior to the tragedy, and she had attempted on several occasions to give her information to the FBI. But because she was certain that her suspects were neither Tim McVeigh nor Terry Nichols, nobody was interested. District Attorney Robert Macy would later decide that Mrs. Graham's testimony was not worthy of an audience with his grand jury.
On the Friday prior to the April 19th bombings, Mrs. Graham had noticed several suspicious looking men in the basement parking area. They were examining blueprints but quickly stashed them in the backseat of their car after realizing someone was watching. Coffee room conversation with some other women had alerted her that the FBI had gotten warning of an impending attack on a federal building, and for this reason she was somewhat wary. She has since identified one of the men as Andreas Strassmeir, the infamous "Andy the German" from Elohim City.
On Tuesday, the day before the tragedy, Mrs. Graham noticed two men on the first floor who were dressed in GSA blue uniforms. They stood out in her mind because she thought she knew all of the GSA workmen but did not recognize these two. She is certain that they were not in the basement group she saw the previous week. At 8:15 a.m. the next morning, she saw the same men on the first floor hurrying for an exit at the west end. Less than an hour later, the building erupted.
A year and a half later, Jane Graham was watching a newly released video entitled "Cover-up in Oklahoma" (available through M/B fulfillment center) which used actual news clips of the early hours following the explosions to point out the discrepancies in the government's story. Midway through the tape, she yelled to her host, "Waitaminnit! Back that up." She had recognized the same two men she had seen twice in GSA blues. This time they were in street clothes and wandering hurriedly away from the debris of the Murrah Building in the background. She alerted the FBI once again, and once again they were not interested. She has spent the past 18 months attempting, without success, to identitify the two mystery men. One is a large man with a beard, the other is of average height with a pocked face.
Cary Gagan has identified the pock-faced man as the same one he saw at the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on 4/13/95 and later in Denver. However, he does not know his name. Considering the testimony of both Graham and Gagan, coupled with the on-the-scene video evidence, both of these mysterious men appear to be real players and suspects.
We have strong documentation that what Cary Gagan says is true. Comparing the video copy of his deposition session with at least ten conversations with him since, we find he does not waver. He has not changed his story concerning his alerting of the authorities and granted immunity since we first heard of him in 1995. He does not recite by rote, as his wording varies with each incident but the facts don't change. We must remember that U. S. Attorney Henry Solano believed Gagan to be credible enough in 1994 to grant him immunity from prosecution in order to allow him to infiltrate the terrorist group and carry out his (otherwise) criminal acts of participation.
When Gagan's story first appeared in Media Bypass, it was distorted because of Solano's chicanery, according to Gagan, and these allegations appear to be true. When Gagan's note to the marshals, dated April 6, 1995, was changed to reflect April 1st, Gagan knew it to be deception on the part of Solano. Close examination of the note, faxed to Media Bypass from the U. S. Attorney's office, shows that the loop of the "6" has been apparently whited-out in order to indicate a "1."
Why April 1st? Gagan says that would be because in 1995, that date fell on a Saturday, and it would have been impossible for him to have delivered the message and gained a signature from anyone of authority on a Saturday at the U. S. Courthouse in Denver -- thereby distorting and rendering his story dubious. However, Solano's futile and childish attempt at deception was strongly overridden by the testimony and taxicab records of William Bayers, as well as the video surveillance camera which recorded his entrance on the sixth of April not the first.
Although the U. S. Marshal's office denied ever received the written warning, Bayers had obtained the signature of Marshal Sharon Hoff on the 6th day of April. She happened to be the same marshal to whom Gagan had delivered his previous papers on March 27th, and the men noted at the time that the signatures matched. Henry Solano is no longer Denver's U. S. Attorney and has since been elevated to the position of Solicitor General of the Labor Department in Washington, D. C., according to Gagan.
On August 24, 1995, the same day Solano faxed Gagan's handwritten note to Myers and Media Bypass, Cary Gagan was grabbed and beaten by three Middle Easterners who said they were "Soldiers of Allah." He was hospitalized with a severe concussion.
While it is difficult to prove everything Gagan says is true, the Oklahomans for Truth Committee has not disproved anything about his testimony. What can be proven far beyond any reasonable doubt is that 1] Gagan had written immunity from the feds; 2] Gagan kept motel, gasoline receipts, and plane tickets which document his trips on the specific dates in question, as well as hospital records of the beatings he took later in an apparent attempt to shut him up; and 3] Gagan issued letters of warning to the Denver authorities on March 27th and April 6th of '95 that the bombing was coming down. There appears to be no doubt that, as he says, "They let it happen."
The accompanying letter from Billy Bayer, a Denver cab driver and Cary Gagan's lifelong and trusted friend who delivered the package to the U.S. Marshals on Gagan's behalf on April 6th proves the veracity of the most important claim. He reminds us that the cab company records will also reflect his stop at the courthouse, as well as the video surveillance cameras on the scene.
However, let us remember, neither the Oklahoma Citizens Committee nor Gagan have to prove that every detail of his story is true. We are presenting his alleged facts and claims and challenge the FBI and Justice Department to answer these charges and prove that it is not true. Gagan, incidentally, is a college graduate who taught school in the Denver public school system. He has filed a Freedom of Information Act motion with the court to demand return of his private papers given to attorney Stephen Jones, who has refused to turn them loose.
This leads us to the charade of defense put on by Stephen Jones, who previously instigated a deception over civil attorney John DeCamp to enable the Murrah Building shell to be detonated only 34 days after the crime and prior to examination. DeCamp was on our radio show twice in the past, explaining how Jones hoodwinked him. There is evidence to show that Jones was in duplicity with the government prosecutors from the beginning, but then we must remember that he was paid $15+ million for his services as a government-appointed attorney. That figure is certainly sufficient to maintain control over a situation. (See sidebar: "How the Defense Hoodwinked Decamp.")
Gagan's April 10th trip to Dwight, Kansas - which he claims was instigated by the FBI - appears to have been another subterfuge to further cement the "bomb-building guilt" of McVeigh and Nichols, as well as implicate Gagan later.
Dwight is 30 miles from Nichol's home in Herrington, and about the same in other directions from Geary State Park and Junction City, where the Ryder truck was rented. Gagan has believed since day one that this was an attempt by prosecutors to get rid of him by implicating him in the crime. But then they suddenly backed off and did not use this piece at the 1997 trial, after including it in the 1995 indictment.
"Why not?" we asked author and investigative reporter Bob Papovich, who has become an authority on the case and had a prison interview with Tim McVeigh earlier this year. "Because it had too many holes in it," he replied.
Indeed, it did. The prosecution team got caught in its uncarefully woven web of deception when their own charges placed McVeigh in both Arizona and Kansas on the same day. They had to disallow one or the other. With Gagan's original handwritten note to the U. S. Marshals having been published nationally (Media Bypass - Oct. '95) and his immunity papers already in the hands of defense attorneys, it undoubtedly became obvious to them that this was a can of worms which should remain sealed.
In August of 1995, Brad Edwards, reporter for KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City told Cary Gagen that they had sent a private investigator to Denver to trail him in order to see what they might learn. Edwards was bemused by the fact that the P. I.'s report came back saying "everywhere that Gagan went, the FBI was trailing him, too." Aware of this at the time, Gagan had frustrated the efforts of both by taking a bus at various intervals.
The Oklahoma City bombing case was the biggest mass murder in the history of America. It also may be the biggest documented cover-up by judicial authorities on record - judging from what we know vs. what was allowed at trial and reported worldwide.
One of the most damning pieces of false evidence presented at Terry Nichols' trial was the alleged armed robbery alleged to have taken place at the home of Roger Moore in Arkansas the first weekend of November, 1994. This was blamed on McVeigh and Nichols and was designed to portray that the two used this loot to finance their operation.
However, it proved useless in the first trial when the defense produced a motel registry in McVeigh's handwriting where he was at a gun show in Ohio that weekend. McVeigh could not be in two places at the same time, and the proof was obvious that he definitely was not in Arkansas on the date in question. In the Nichols trial Karen Anderson, Moore's live-in girlfriend, produced a list of serial numbers from guns "stolen" from their home and later "found" in Nichols' home. However, with receipts, the defense showed the court how one of these weapons had been purchased and registered with BATF by Terry from a sporting goods store in Michigan long after the list was written by Anderson. It would have been impossible for Anderson to have prepared a list which included this gun. The list was obviously a phony, deceptively prepared by the prosecution. (See Bob Papovich's sidebar on "Perjury.")
Gen. Partin was never called to trial as an expert witness to show what really happened inside the building. This would have been to point out that if ANFO didn't do it, then Tim McVeigh didn't either. BATF official Harry Eberhart (See M/B, November '98) was quietly ignored and never asked just what he was doing on the scene, when his project had been to test ANFO explosives in the New Mexico desert to guard against domestic terrorist attacks within our borders. It was Eberhart's phone call, immediately after the blasts, to the Dallas BATF office which initiated the original charade of ANFO being responsible.
With so many facts showing that it would have been impossible for McVeigh and Nichols to have been behind this "very sophisticated operation" (Governor Frank Keating, 11:00 a.m., 4/19/95), We the People must now ask ourselves:
Who did have the technical expertise and access to the Murrah Building enabling them to plant four bombs at the third floor columns?
Who had the power to not only silence but completely reverse the early news reports of the multiple explosions (seen and heard by hundreds of witnesses) and the two unexploded bombs found in the debris?
Who decided at the last moment to initiate the warning call to voice mail receivers of all the BATF agents, instructing them not to come to work that morning?
Who had the controlling influence to distort the bombing facts, keep the truth off the airwaves day after day, and ensure that only government-approved lies would be reported on the national news?
When federal agents normally react swiftly to any warning or perceived threat against Presidents, Congressmen, and even lowly bureaucrats, why were Cary Gagan's repeated documented warnings and phone calls ignored for more than seven months?
Who are the ultimate individuals at the top who "let it happen?"
Once a target audience believes in something, based on the statement of a credible leader and backed by trusted institutions, it becomes difficult to dislodge that belief - even with massive and overwhelming evidence produced to the contrary. And when a leader, supported by the news media, creates belief based on a direct lie in a confused situation, where contradictory evidence is so difficult to determine because of deliberate suppression, then it can reasonably be expected that the truth may never prevail.
In some instances, it takes the passage of considerable time, sometimes generations, before societies can accept the fact that certain historically held beliefs were false, and based solely on lies. This has been the case in almost every political assassination and war provocation in American history - e.g. Lincoln, Kennedy brothers, M. L. King, Pearl Harbor, Gulf of Tonkin, etc., and the most recent JFK news report that the bronze casket which once contained his body was not buried at Arlington but dropped in the Atlantic Ocean by an Air Force plane in 1965.
GAGAN'S CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS click
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