Pat Shannan's MUSINGS
Better Known As The FIB
At this writing, Tim's execution is now scheduled for June 11th, so he may be dead by the time you read this. The majority doubt it, but whenever the red tape is finalized, the media are saying that his will be the first federal execution since 1963. Are they finally admitting to JFK's or just speaking of those with judicial imprimatur?
Speaking of the previous, there have been too many since 1963. Too many to count, too many to be coincidence or accidental. The evidence presented in our May issue is conclusive that the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. was nothing less than a federal execution. The case has finally been solved, as far as we are concerned, by the testimony of an eyewitness participant. That shooting silently announced to the American people, for the second time in less than five years, that "You are not in charge, we are."
You be the Judge
At 6:00 a.m. on September 15, 1963, Deputy U. S. Marshal Dan Moore, 40, was awakened by a phone call from Washington D. C. It was John W. Cameron, one of those in charge of the marshal's home base.
"Get up and go downtown and secure the Federal Building," ordered Cameron.
"What's the problem?" queried Moore.
"Oh, uhh, well, we're expecting some riots and demonstrations next week," Cameron replied.
Failing to see the urgency of the matter at such an early hour, Moore got up and had a leisurely breakfast with his wife, before heading downtown to tend to business. "Securing" meant stationing a deputy at each door and stairwells and being on a general alert. He was soon to learn the reason for his efforts.
At 10:15 that morning, when he heard the explosion a few blocks away, he began to think that the boys in Washington knew more than they were saying. A few minutes later he got the phone call informing him that a bomb had gone off at the 16th Street Baptist Church and four little Negro girls had been killed. The incident would seal the passing of the then-stalled Civil Rights Bill in Congress the next year.
It was the same crime for which Thomas Blanton was convicted this past April. But was it actually a federal execution? Dan Moore will always believe it. He cites 39 other home and church bombings of the era and says that not one was investigated by the federales. Go figure.
RFK
The Senator Robert F. Kennedy murder, while certainly another execution, cannot be definitely stamped with the federal label yet. However, the on-going participation of the Federal Investigation Bureau (FIB) in the cover-up points the finger of suspicion again toward D. C. (The details of evidence, which implicate the LAPD more than the FIB {this time] are presented in this issue in our ongoing series "Assassinations and the News Media Cover-up.")
Gordon Kahl
There is no doubt that another federal execution took place on June 3, 1983, when Gordon Kahl was rubbed out in a small cabin in northeast Arkansas. It is one of the great travesties of justice on record in the 20th century. The FIB and local constabulary, some 40 strong, surrounded the house of Leonard and Norma Ginter, where Gordon was watching the evening news. According to an intensive private investigation later, an FIB/ SAC of the Little Rock office named James Blasingame stepped inside and shot the unarmed Gordon through the back of the head.
As local sheriff Gene Matthews, who had witnessed the execution, stepped to the front door to call off the dogs, he was killed with a shot above the heart by an unknown agent outside. Kahl got the official blame, but in addition to the .223 slug that entered under Matthews' armpit, he was hit by two other blasts - a 9mm shot to the head and a spread of shotgun pellets to his back - all after Kahl was dead. Only Blasingame was in the house and behind Matthews at the time. And Matthews got the blame for killing Kahl in a mythical "shoot-out" in the official FIB report.
Then word came down that the man they had killed was not Gordon but local farmer Bill Wade, a Kahl lookalike. So the FIB handled that with its normal finesse. They ordered that five gallons of gasoline be poured down the chimney and ignited. The body was burned to a crisp, in order to cover-up the mistake that they had killed the wrong man, and the goon squad fired thousands of rounds into the house for hours into the night. The next day Bill Wade surfaced as alive and well, and for not nearly the first time nor the last, the FIB looked foolish again.
Initially, the FIB stated that "no accelerants" were used and denied giving orders to dump the gasoline into the house. Later, in the face of blatant contrary facts, they admitted that it was their "request" that the fuel be dumped down the vents. Governor Bill Clinton aided in the cover-up by denying access to the evidence by private investigators.
Ruby Ridge
If young Sammy Weaver's death was not a federal execution, his mother's definitely was. Little Sam, 14, got himself into a gun battle when U. S. Marshals shot his beloved Golden Retriever, Striker, on August 21, 1992. Sammy lost. When he retaliated to the shooting of his dog (what kid wouldn't?), the marshals nearly blew his arm off with the first burst. The eighty-pounder spun around, more by impetus than motivation, and began to run for home. His sprint was halted when he was zippered through the back with a burst of automatic weapon fire by one of the marshals. The government, of course, pleaded self-defense - even though they fired first. Maybe it was a semi-acceptable excuse. After all, one of their own had been killed in the skirmish.
The next morning, FIB Hostage Rescue Team sharpshooter/sniper Lon Horiuchi blew half of Vickie Weaver's head off, while she held her 10-month-old Elisheba in her arms. The judicial cover-up exonerated Horiuchi, but it was but to hide another federal execution. The psychological profile showed that Vickie was the feared "matriarch" of the family, as determined by of some the letters she had written. She was the target, and the target was extinguished.
The Branch Davidians
The attack upon the Christian church at Mt. Carmel was a multi-fold federal execution. On February 26, 1993, 75 to 100 hyped-up BATF goons stormed out of two cattle trucks and began shooting indiscriminately at (mostly) unarmed men, women, and children. When the Branch Davidians grabbed their weapons and began to defend themselves, four agents were killed. (The question still lingers as to how they were actually killed. News film strongly suggests that the agents may have been killed by "friendly fire.")
The winners write history. Therefore, we have heard little of the federal executions that day of Jae Dean Wendell, a unarmed mother who was shot and killed by a gunshot to the head. We certainly have not heard anything about the death of Winston Blake and won't, because he was killed by a blast from above by the federal shooters in the nonexistent helicopter. So was Peter Hippsman. So was Peter Gent, who was on top of the water tower at the time of the attack. Federal executions. (This was only two days after the FIB had effectuated the blowing-up of the World Trade Center in New York. Another government-instigated execution quietly swept under the rug. Was there an unannounced public relations campaign for the BATF going on that weekend?)
On the TV news that night, wimpy spokespersons for the BATF screamed that they were "out gunned" by the "heavily armed" Davidians. Poor babies. They marched into the OK Corral like a bunch of drunken Clanton brothers and ran into Wyatt and Doc. Now they wanted some sympathy from us for their blunder. (The Davidians had not manned a .50 caliber machine gun, as alleged by the cowardly wimps.) In typical retaliatory fashion, the BATF murdered unarmed Michael Schroeder later that evening, with two shots to the head and one in the back, as he attempted to slip back into his church home after being away all day. His body was left displayed on a fence for five days as a ghoulish trophy of the proud hunters. It was yet another federal execution. Then the FIB took over, in unintentional preparation to screw up the works again, but it seems to be what they do best.
51 days passed, while we endured the lies, via the nightly electronic brain-washer, promulgated by Bob Ricks, the chief FIBber spokesman. Finally, the monsters stormed in again. This time it was by that celebrated "greatest investigative agency in the world," the FIB. What a joke these liars are.
They smashed the building with tanks, they set it aflame, and they shot men, women, and children in the exits trying to escape the burning building. Yes, they did. Their own FLIR tapes prove it. Then they lied some more and said they didn't fire a shot, but it was caught on film. Later, when the truth was making them squirm, they put former Senator John Danforth back into his clerical collar to confirm the lie for the multitudes; and he did so by eventually saying, after his great charade disguised as an in-depth investigation, that no shots were fired by law enforcement that day. He either ignored the FLIR tapes or he lied, and the federal execution of 80 more was passed over.
By the way, Lon Horiuchi, the killer of Vickie Weaver, was on the scene in Waco that day, and we can only imagine his sadistic delight in the firing of his automatic weapon at those unarmed Davidians. Yes, we can prove that he was there. No, we cannot prove that he actually killed anyone, but what do you think? They dang sure didn't bring in this expert marksman to be an observer and write a report.
OKC
We cannot know about all of the federal executions committed over such a long period of time. We can be sure that some were tucked beneath the blanket, totally, without any news coverage or private exposure at all. But we know of one more mass murder, and it is the same one for which Timothy McVeigh is on the verge of being executed. Was he involved? A resounding "Yes!" Was he the sole architect, as he allegedly has "confessed?" An even louder - echoing from the mountain tops - "NO!" We have never bought it for a moment. Authors Michel and Herbeck are fuller of it than the proverbial Christmas turkey.
If Tim really said everything that they say he did, particularly the lies, it is for one or more of three reasons: 1] He is under his adversary's influence via drugs and mind control; 2] He has been threatened with harm to his family, if he does not cooperate; or 3] as current developments may be indicating, he has been told, "Take full responsibility for everything, and we will see that enough `new' evidence surfaces to set aside your death sentence and get you life in prison." Current developments seem to indicate the latest.
But this could backfire on them, too.
Georgetown University law professor Paul Rothstein contends that FBI bungling may not only save McVeigh from execution, it could set him free.
Rothstein was one of several legal experts who told the New York Post they believe McVeigh might now win a new trial. Citing his comments, the paper reported: "If the courts decide McVeigh's trial was tainted by the FBI, this would trigger 'double jeopardy' and McVeigh could not be retried."
The Murrah Building was blown from the inside out. A fertilizer bomb did not inflict that kind of damage. Was Tim McVeigh there as a participant? Yes, in the same capacity as were Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray from previous government operations. Did Tim kill 169 people (don't forget the unattached leg)? No, the baby-faced former soldier could not have accomplished that from a truck on the outside. Even if the truck had been laden with a dozen A-bombs, it was impossible to effectuate the pattern of destruction shown in evidence. McVeigh is the scapegoat; done-in by the real architects, the lawyers (on both sides), the judges, the Oklahoma governor, the federal judiciary, and the BATF - all of whom were assisted with the tainted evidence provided by the FIB.
No, Tim's will not be the "first" federal execution in nearly forty years, only the next one, if it does ever happen.
As everyone knows by now, the incident that precipitated this stay of execution was the admission by the FIB that it had managed to withhold 3,130 pieces of documented info from the trial court, most of which were 302 documents. "302s" are the forms agents fill out whenever they interview anyone for anything regarding any case. Could the nine-hour initial interview with Terry Nichols on April 21, 1995, prior to his arrest, be amongst the stack? The FIBbers said they took no notes that day. Right! And what about that surveillance tape focused on the front door of the Murrah Building. The FIB announced on the afternoon of the bombing(s) that it had been taken into custody and was being reviewed. It never surfaced at trial. Was it "Deep Sixed" or will another whistleblower with scruples come forward with it?
Every news report following the stunning announcement of the FIB's faux pas called it an "inadvertent oversight," and we can be certain that the spin line won't change. Even when we are shown that every document of consequence will be detrimental to the prosecution and exculpatory for the defense, the continual clam-up of "No comment" will remain intact, reflecting "That's our story and we're sticking with it."
Well, why not? Only 3,135 missing documents from only 46 different offices. Of course it was an oversight. An inadvertent oversight by thousands of agents. Any fool can believe that. (Four days later, more suppressed files were discovered in the Baltimore office of FIB, which pushed the total number over 4,400.)
A few days before the judiciary-shaking announcement, I got a call from my dear, sweet mama in Florida.
"Well, I guess you'll be going to Indiana for the execution," she said, after we exchanged our pleasantries.
"No, Mom, I'm not interested in watching anyone be put to sleep," I replied. "Especially one who has been used as a scapegoat. There will be more exciting shows on TV than that. However, I want you to know that I'd crawl naked through the snow from here to Indiana to watch the public hanging of Lon Horiuchi."
"Who is that?"
I reckon it's a shame that at least 200 million other Americans have also forgotten him.