October 19, 2008

New developments in the quest to determine the actual truth behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing can be attributed to the tireless work of attorney, Jesse Trentadue. Trentadue, a former United States Marine, began his personal mission in an attempt to uncover the cause of his brother’s death. Jesse’s brother Kenny Trentadue was murdered, or rather, “suicided” in a federal penitentiary under alarmingly mysterious circumstances, after he was mistaken for Richard Guthrie, a member of the Aryan Republican Army and Midwest Bank Robbers. It was believed by authorities that Guthrie was involved in the bombing. Jesse Trentadue, since then, has become the legal and informational vanguard for other victims of the bombings, such as Jannie Coverdale, who lost her two young grandsons in the blast, and has herself fought the FBI, DOJ and almost every other federal agency imaginable, in order to find the truth.

Trentadue has been instrumental in having unreleased documents made public through the eroding Freedom of Information Act, as well as other legal methods. His work is ceaseless and justifiably driven. A few of the more astounding recent breakthroughs that Trentadue has made involve the CIA, FBI and BOP (Bureau of Prisons).  Talk about alphabet soup. This kind is poison.

Trentadue won a ruling On September 25, 2008, which he had sought for over a year and a half.  Trentadue had been trying to depose, on video, federal inmates David Paul Hammer and Terry Nichols.  Nichols, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for his still mysterious role in the bombing, says he is ready to tell all. Yet, the DOJ, FBI and BOP have made this task almost impossible, claiming that such as deposition would be detrimental to prison security.

This is also the claim made by these agencies to try and block Trentadue from deposing Hammer. Hammer, who is currently on Death Row in Terre Haute, Indiana, was housed in a cell next to the elusive and mysterious Timothy McVeigh for the last couple years of McVeigh’s life.  Hammer, who wrote the book Secrets Worth Dying For, was the recipient of some of McVeigh’s “final” confessions. These include his corroborated claims of being an agent of the government during the planning and execution of the bombing. Secrets Worth Dying for is one of the most chilling books on OKC and one which is worth reading for anyone with an interest in this case.  Hammer has recently said that a new edition of the book will be released on April 19, 2009 and will contain further verified information regarding the exact role of Timothy “Lone Truck Bomber” McVeigh. Trentadue, who finally won his suit to depose these men on video, says that he believes the government will appeal this ruling. What do they have to hide?

Image via Wikipedia

On October 10, 2008, Trentadue filed a complaint with the US district court of Utah, against the CIA, claiming that since December of 2006, the CIA has continuously withheld information which the agency was compelled by law, via the FOIA, to release. Information which was requested but which has to this date been withheld concern the CIA’s investigation and/or involvement in the OKC bombing, information regarding German National Andreas Strassmier’s role as an informant/ agent in the bombing, and the nature of  his exact relationship with McVeigh and the Aryan Republican Army/ Midwest bank robbers. The difficulty in attaining this protected information was also previously encountered by several others, including McVeigh and Nichols own defense attorneys. Yet, Trentadue is not trying to defend these men or their actions. He is trying to find out the truth of his brothers gruesome murder. Trentadue has demanded in his filing that all information concerning “all investigations into the CIA’s role, involvement with or connection to the Murrah Building Bombing whether through employees, informants, operatives or other means” be turned over ASAP. He also has been fighting to obtain similar records from the FBI, and ATF. His last letter, written to officials at the CIA, written March 2008 concluded with the line “I hope there will be no need for me to sue in order to obtain these records.” This should be interesting, to say the least.

Finally, on October 12, 2008 Trentadue filed another Freedom of Information Act to obtain records from the FBI.   He has now requested copies of all surveillance video tapes which are related to OKC, including all surveillance tapes from in and around the Murrah building from the dates of April 15- April 19, which include the interior and exterior cameras of the Regency Apartments, located across from the Murrah, security camera on the west side of the Murrah and one on the south of the Journal Records building. (Anyone having 9/11 Pentagon déjà vous?)

Image via Wikipedia

One of these OKC surveillance video tapes is mentioned in a Secret Service memo which states that “[s]ecurity video tapes from the area [that] show the [Ryder] truck detonation 3 minutes and 6 seconds after the SUSPECTS exited the truck.” Unless the Secret Service is ill informed on the use of grammar, the word SUSPECTS clearly implies a massive cover-up of worse. Trentadue is also requesting all reports which reference the FBI’s seizure of these tapes and the chain of possession with which they were handled in their eventual disappearance from the FBI’s (and others) files. Furthermore, Trentadue is asking for all video tape and records which can illuminate the truck, known to be at the site of the bombing, which was traveling behind McVeigh when he was arrested by Trooper Charlie Hangar in Perry, Oklahoma, an hour after the blast. Hangar had dashboard video equipment in his patrol car, but somehow this was mysteriously turned off until after Hangar had actually arrested McVeigh.

We wish Trentadue the best of luck. We hope he knows that all OKC researchers, as well as anyone interested in uncovering these types of governmental abuses, are holding their breaths while they wait for the eventual release of these documents and tapes. This case should not only be of interest to “conspiracy theorists,”  and historians, but should also be taken note of by transarency of government and prisoner rights advocates. God Speed, Jesse Trentadue.

Wendy S. Painting recently finished a Masters degree from the State University of New York and is currently pursuing a PhD. She is working on a book about the Oklahoma City bombing.