THE BIG STORY WITH JOHN GIBSON
June 20, 2002
HEADLINE: Interview With Jayna Davis
GIBSON: Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that our government was warned that Islamic terrorists were planning attacks on American federal buildings around the time of the Oklahoma City bombing. The Clinton administration even stepped up security around such buildings.
So could this mean that Timothy McVeigh was acting in league with those
militants? My next guest says, yes, indeed.
Jayna Davis is a former Oklahoma City television reporter. She joins us now from Oklahoma City.
So, Jayna, this warning that was issued in February of 1995, a -- essentially
a couple of months before the Murrah building explosion -- do you think it was connected to that bombing?
JAYNA DAVIS, FORMER OKLAHOMA CITY TV REPORTER: Well, it dovetails with the information that we generated when I was working as a reporter for the NBC affiliate here in Oklahoma City, and we gathered information from 24 witnesses who identified eight Middle Eastern men, the majority of whom were of Iraqi descend, working in collusion with Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols during various stages of the bombing plot to blow up the Murrah building.
The warning you refer to, John, I have in my possession. It was issued by the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, and what -- why it's startling to me is because it stated in February of 1995 that there would be an Iran-sponsored Islamic attack on U.S. soil. This specific target was Washington, D.C., primarily Congress and the White House.
Once security was beefed up after the dissemination of this warning, then there was an updated warning that was then issued by the director of the Congressional Task Force, Mr. Yossef Bodansky. He stated in the updated warning the specific language that the terrorists planned to strike at the heart of the U.S. but not acting alone.
The Islamic terrorists were going to employ the services and recruit what they call two lily whites. And in the jargon of the intelligence community, lily whites means anybody that's not connected or ostensibly connected to any Middle Eastern terrorist organizations and they have no police record, they're clean, they wouldn't be flagged by any law- enforcement agencies. Both Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh fit that criterion.
GIBSON: Now, Jayna, you have long held that a character named Hussain
Al-Hussaini is John Doe #2, and I think we have pictures of him here. This is Hussain Hasham Al-Hussaini, and then, of course, we'll see the picture of John Doe #2, and he does bear a resemblance to him. What evidence do you have that Hussain Al-Hussaini, an Iraqi, was with Tim McVeigh?
DAVIS: Well, let's start with four days before the bombing. Two witnesses who independently identified him out of a photo line-up of 35 photographs of eight different Middle Eastern men. These witnesses identified him independently of each other as drinking beer with Timothy McVeigh in a tavern in Oklahoma City on April 15th of 1995.
Then there were two more witnesses that identified him jogging outside the
Murrah building, dressed in blue jeans with a backpack and a windbreaker, racing from the Murrah building, one block east of the building, timing his run, before daybreak, the day of April 19th. These witnesses walked past this individual they saw running within about three to four feet and looked him square in the face. He was positively identified...
GIBSON: Where is Hussain Al-Hussaini?
DAVIS: Well, we don't know. I do know that he went and moved to Boston sometime around 1997 and claimed that he was working at Boston International Airport...
GIBSON: Logan?
DAVIS: ... in '97 and '98. Logan. Yes.
GIBSON: And he was an Iraqi soldier?
DAVIS: It's also important to note, John, he was identified in the Ryder truck with McVeigh 30 minutes prior to the bombing when McVeigh stopped to ask for directions at 10th and Hudson, which is about five blocks north of the Murrah building.
He was also identified at ground zero stepping out of the Ryder truck. He was identified in the passenger seat -- I'm sorry -- in the driver's seat of a brown Chevrolet pickup speeding away from the bomb site 60 seconds after the blast in a truck that matched the description of the official FBI all-points bulletin issued the morning of the bombing for Middle Eastern terrorists.
It should be interesting to watch Jayna, the broadcast journalists, interview. I never say for sure about any news item, just when I've read one article. Tell me how the book is? Have you read it yet? Perhaps you should do that first!
