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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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