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PETITION
FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS OF PETITIONER-DEFENDANT,
TIMOTHY JAMES McVEIGH AND BRIEF IN SUPPORT MARCH 25, 1997 |
IN
THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
TIMOTHY JAMES McVEIGH,
Petitioner-Defendant,
v. HONORABLE RICHARD
P. MATSCH, Respondent.
Case No. 96 (Case No. 96-CR-68-M below) PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS OF PETITIONER-DEFENDANT,
TIMOTHY
JAMES McVEIGH AND BRIEF IN SUPPORT COMES NOW the Petitioner, Timothy James McVeigh,
by and through the undersigned counsel, and moves this Court to: 1. Assume jurisdiction in this matter and issue a Writ of
Mandamus to the respondent trial judge directing the respondent to enter the
appropriate orders specifically requested herein; and 2. Issue a stay of the proceedings below pending
resolution of this Petition in this Court or, in the alternative, allow jury
selection to proceed on schedule, March 31, 1997, but stay the taking of
evidence in the court below pending this Court's resolution of the
Petition.
OVERVIEW The McVeigh defense, based upon the
material provided to it, suggests the following hypothesis: A foreign power,
probably Iraq, but not excluding the possibility of another foreign state,
planned a terrorist attack(s) in the United States and that one of those
targets was the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. The Murrah Building
was chosen either because of lack of security (i.e. it was a "soft
target"), or because of available resources such as Iraqi POW's who had
been admitted into the United States were located in Oklahoma City, or possibly
because the location of the building was important to American neo-Nazis such
as those individuals who supported Richard Snell who was executed in Arkansas
on April 19, 1995. The plan
was arranged for a Middle Eastern bombing engineer to engineer the bomb in such
a way that it could be carefully transported and successfully detonated. There
is no reported incident of neo-Nazis or extreme right-wing militants in this
country exploding any bomb of any significant size let alone one to bring down
a nine (9) story federal building and kill 168 persons. In fact, not even
members of the left-wing militant groups such as the Weatherman were ever able
to accomplish anything of this magnitude. This terrorist attack was "contracted out"
to persons whose organization and ideology was friendly to policies of the
foreign power and included dislike and hatred of the United States government
itself, and possibly included was a desire for revenge against the United
States, with possible anti-black and anti-semitic overtones. Because Iraq had
tried a similar approach in 1990, but had been thwarted by Syrian intelligence
information given to the United States, this time the information was passed
through an Iraqi intelligence base in the Philippines. Operating out of the Philippines
as a base, the state-sponspored [sic] terrorists, with the Murrah Building
already chosen as the target, enlisted the support and assistance of members of
the Radical American Right. The defense believes the evidence suggests that
American neo-Nazis were chosen to carry out the bombing of the Murrah Building
because of a shared ideological bent of hatred against the American government.
It is possible that those who carried out the bombing were unaware of the true
sponsor. The evidence
collected by the defense suggests that the desired ideology was found by the
state-sponsored terrorists in Elohim City, Oklahoma, a small compound near
Muldrow, Oklahoma, consisting of between 25 and 30 families and described as a
terrorist organization which preaches white supremacy, polygamy and overthrow
of the government. Elohim City was a haven for former members of The Covenant,
The Sword and the Arm of the Lord ("CSA"), another extremist
organization that had been raided by the federal government on April 19, 1995,
exactly ten years to the day prior to the Oklahoma City bombing. One member of
CSA turned on the organization and testified in court at the trial of Richard
Snell and others who were charged in Arkansas with sedition in that they
conspired to destroy the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City with a
rocket launcher in the early 1980's. Snell was convicted on unrelated capital charges and
sentenced to death in Arkansas. He was
executed the day of the Oklahoma City bombing--April 19, 1995--and
is buried at Elohim City. It is
from this group of people that the defense believes that the evidence suggests foreign, state-sponsored
terrorists groomed the most
radical persons associated with Elohim City and extracted monumental revenge against the federal
government by destroying the
Murrah Building on the day of Richard Snell's execution and the
anniversary date of federal
raid. But the defense
hypothesis also entails evidence, very strong evidence, that the federal
government, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, had an
informant in Elohim City, an informant who warned federal law enforcement prior
to April 19, 1995, that former residents, including the former chief of security,
of Elohim City were planning to "target for destruction" federal
buildings in Oklahoma, including the Alfred P. Murrah Building. The defense
believes this scenario is true, that is is [sic] eerily similar to the World
Trade Center bombing where the FBI had an informant infiltrate the terrorist
group but failed to stop that criminal act, and that, absent judicial
intervention, information concerning these matters in the possession of the
federal government will be forever buried. The defense for Mr. McVeigh is not engaged in a
fishing expedition. As the information set forth in this Petition demonstrates,
the McVeigh defense, using resources provided to it by the district court, has
conducted a wide-ranging and increasingly narrow focused investigation. But without
subpoena power, without the right to take depositions, and without access to
national intelligence information, the McVeigh defense can go no further. |
PETITION
FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS OF PETITIONER-DEFENDANT,
TIMOTHY JAMES McVEIGH AND BRIEF IN SUPPORT MARCH 25, 1997 |
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