OKC revisited

In the past, I've steered clear of conspiracy theories involving the Oklahoma City bombing. During the Clinton era, the people involved with constructing such theories always tended to remind me of...well, of people like Tim McVeigh. However, I'm impressed with the work of Jim Crogan, a responsible feet-on-the-ground sort of writer who keeps digging up odd new facts.

Check out Crogan's latest, which tells the tale of a stolen pick-up truck allegedly involved with the event. The truck belonged to a factory worker (name not revealed in the story) who, nine days after the tragedy, found an FBI agent named Jim Ellis on his doorstep. "We have some good news and some bad news for you," the agent said. "The good news is, we found your truck. The bad news is, it was used in the Murrah bombing."

Question: Used how?

Standard accounts of the bombing make no reference to a pilfered brown 1983 GMC High Sierra. Whoever stole it tried to disguise the vehicle as a yellow Chevy Silverado. (The cops identified it by the VIN.)

The redone vehicle matched the description of a yellow truck carrying two men of Middle Eastern descent, linked in early news accounts with the bombing. A week after the bombing, the truck was dumped near an apartment complex in Oklahoma City, where a witness saw two young Middle Eastern men leave the vehicle.

The FBI later claimed that the truck had no linkage to the bombing. “It simply wasn’t consistent with our investigation,” said one Bureau spokesman, who seems to have had a keen instinct for the un-reassuring phrase.

Check out the Crogan article for more.