| For Immediate Release Mar 14, 2002 |
Contact: Press Office 202-646-5188 |
Judicial Watch Complaint Details Iraq’s Means, Opportunity and Motive Action Brought Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, said today that it has filed suit against the Republic of Iraq on behalf of 14 survivors of the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, OK. Judicial Watch’s co-counsel in this matter are John Michael Johnston, Esq. of Oklahoma City, and Jay D. Adkisson, Esq. of Irvine, California. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is brought against Iraq, as a State Department designated terrorism sponsor, under the provisions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which addresses state sponsored terrorism and has a specific provision for retroactive application. Judicial Watch and its clients contend that other individuals, in addition to Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, were involved in the preparation for and execution of the attack on the Murrah Building. These individuals were operating as agents of the Republic of Iraq and took an active part in the planning, technical and/or financial activities of the bombing plot. The complaint details the involvement and complicity of Iraq by both direct and circumstantial evidence in classic application, i.e., means, opportunity, and motive. The complaint, a copy of which can be found on the Internet by clicking HERE, cites reporting from Philippine intelligence and law enforcement sources concerning meetings between convicted Murrah Building bombing accomplice Terry Nichols and Ramzi Youssef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, during Nichols’ travel to the Philippines between 1990 and 1994. Additional evidence obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveals Interpol’s efforts to apprehend two additional Oklahoma City bombing suspects and information in the agency’s files associating Ramzi Youssef with the attack. “It’s time the whole story about the Oklahoma City bombing is revealed, and that justice is done for the Iraqi’s state sponsorship of that brutal attack on American citizens,” stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman. “The survivors of the Murrah Building bombing and the people of Oklahoma City have waited a long time for the whole, unvarnished truth to come out concerning this horrific plot, and they won’t rest until that’s accomplished,” added attorney Mike Johnston. | |