The Third Terrorist by Jayna Davis (reviewed by Abel Ashes)

There is no doubt that others were involved in the Oklahoma City bombing in addition to Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and the Fortiers.
Was Iraq involved? Maybe. Was Ramzi Yousef involved? Maybe. Was there a wider conspiracy involving Elohim City and related racist "revolutionaries" associated with "The Order"? It seems almost certain.

A BATF informant Carol Howe gave advanced warning and subsequent testimony to this effect. Dennis Mahon, who was recently arrested for letter bombing an African American allegedly admitted involvement in the bombing during a taped conversation with journalist JD Cash. Let's also not forget the ever elusive Andreas "Andy The German" Strassmeir, whose interview with Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in "The Secret Life of Bill Clinton" is absolutely essential reading for anyone wanting to get at the truth about the so-called "others unknown".

I would be careful trusting any one source above all others. If Jayna Davis had connected her alleged Iraq government conspiracy to the obvious wider white supremacist conspiracy I might find her book more believable. However, since she chose to whitewash connections to Elohim City, The Covenant Sword and Arm of The Lord, "The Order", Andreas Strassmeir, Carol Mahon, Dennis Mahon, Michael Brescia (John Doe #2?), Peter Langan and others, I question her motives.

"The Third Terrorist" reads like a continuation of Laurie Mylroie's "The War Against America" which favored blaming Iraq based upon a flimsy conspiracy theory.
That said I do recommend reading "The Third Terrorist", but take it with a grain of salt and when you have time also read:

1. "Deathtrap: Oklahoma City, Were Innocent Victims Used As Bait?" by Chuck Harder and JD Cash Deathtrap: Oklahoma CityDeathtrap, the Oklahoma City bombing: Were innocent people used as bait in a sting gone sour? : a collection of investigative articles
JD Cash's articles are on pages 285 - 602)The book also includes documents from Timothy Mcveigh's trial and the trial of Carol Howe as well as her testimony)
Skip most of the rest of the book as its full of misinformed rants and unrelated political opinion pieces.

2. "The Secret Life of Bill Clinton: The Unreported Stories" by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard The Secret Life of Bill ClintonThe Secret Life of Bill Clinton: The Unreported Stories
Chapters 1-7 are on the Oklahoma City bombing and feature a good run down of the case for foreknowledge, involvement by informants, and the wider white racist conspiracy. Other chapters focus on various alleged conspiracies and cover-ups involving Bill Clinton.

3. "After Oklahoma City: A Grieving Grandmother Uncovers Shocking Truths About The Bombing...And Herself" by Kathy Sanders After Oklahoma City
Kathy Sanders lost her two grandsons Chase and Colton Smith in the bombing. Her daughter and the victims' mother, Edye Smith questioned the media as to possible foreknowledge of the BATF via informants such as Carol Howe. Kathy Sanders husband Glenn Wilburn died of cancer while investigating the bombing. Glenn Wilburn worked with JD Cash for sometime, but eventually had a falling out and began to distrust him.

4. "1,000 Years For Revenge: International Terrorism And The FBI" by Peter lance
1000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and the FBI--the Untold Story
Pages 308-318 detail the evidence that Terry Nichols may have learned how to build the Oklahoma City bomb from World Trade Center bomber and September 11th/Bojinka mastermind Ramzi Yousef in the Philippines.

5. "Triple Cross: How Bin Laden's Master Spy Penetrated The CIA, The Green Berets, And The FBI - And Why Patrick Fitzgerald Failed To Stop Him Triple Cross: How bin Laden's Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets, and the FBI--and Why Patrick Fitzgerald Failed to Stop Him
More possible Al-Qaeda connections to the McVeigh/Nichols bombing.

6. "American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists, & Others" by John George & Laird Wilcox American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists & Others
This book contains some good historical background necessary to understand the "The Order" and Elohim City.

7. "A Force Upon The Plain: The American Militia Movement And The Politics Of Hate" by Kenneth S. Stern A Force upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate ; With a New Foreword by the Author
There are and have always been many in the so-called "militia movement" that are not racist. However there have also always been way too many who are not only racist, but also armed and highly paranoid. This book gives some good background information on how the ultra libertarian "militia movement" has been used as tool of white supremacist and anti-Semites and how that connects to Oklahoma City. The anti-Semite and anti-US Federal government agendas are the two elements that may have led American white racists to get in bed with Arab Jihadists and vice versa.

8. "American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & The Oklahoma City Bombing" by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & the Oklahoma City BombingAmerican Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & the Tragedy at Oklahoma City
Although the authors unconvincingly deny a wider conspiracy this book is essential reading, as it is the most thorough biography of McVeigh available.

9. "American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us" by Steve Emerson American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us
The possibility that Middle Eastern Jihadists were involved with the American white racists is compelling. This book shows that the Oklahoma City/Norman, Oklahoma area was and is a center of Jihadist activity in America.

10. "Others Unknown: Timothy McVeigh and The Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy" by Stephen Jones (Chief Defense Council, U.S. v. McVeigh) and Peter Israel Others Unknown: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy
The cover reads "At last, the real story". Not quite, but it does contain some useful information and presents a very convincing case for McVeigh not ratting out is co-conspirators, instead choosing to be "martyred" as a "good soldier".

11. "The Oklahoma City Bombing And The Politics Of Terror" by David Hoffman, foreword by Representative Charles Key. [ASIN:0922915490 The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror]]
This book contains lots of useful facts mixed with lots of useless disinformation, misinformation, and conjecture. Although it includes a ridiculous chapter on the stupid "theory" that McVeigh might have been a "Manchurian Candidate", there is some useful info here. Just be careful. This book covers lots of ground some solid, some very, very shaky.

Renewable energy: key to future long-term economic stability

By Abel Ashes 8/4/09

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of the current recession is the role that oil prices played in bringing about the economic crisis. Often forgotten in all of the talk of credit default swaps and real estate bubbles is the fact that shortly before the economy began to go into a steep decline the nation was facing nearly $150 dollar per barrel oil and nearly $5 per gallon gasoline.

Neither the oil issue nor the real estate issue worked in isolation to cause the current recession, but rather exacerbated one another making the economic meltdown inevitable. With so much of new home ownership concentrated in areas of suburban sprawl where gas guzzling SUVs were the norm and the prevailing culture encouraged the use of homes “as ATMs” the effects of gasoline prices on households alone had potential to send the economy into a tailspin. However, when one considers the effects of high oil prices on industry we can clearly see that recession may have happened whether or not the real estate bubble had burst. In fact the high oil prices may have been the prick that finally burst the bubble.

Just as an entire neighborhood suffers the after effects of the foreclosures of neighbors in declining home values, so to does the entire nation suffer the after effects of high oil prices due to cost increases being passed on to the consumer as well as the potential of lay-offs and business closings due to out of control business expenses. These expenses can manifest themselves as cost increases in mining, logging, manufacturing, farming, packaging, and transportation of goods. In fact many of the employment sectors to suffer first were those heavily dependant upon low oil prices to sustain profitability; such as trucking, airlines, non-organic farming, and construction.

Concurrent with the recession triggering oil price increases of July 2008 was the arrival of a record setting world crude oil production level of 74.8 million barrels per day. In other words, while oil prices may have risen due to a variety of factors, the most essential was obvious; oil demand was feared to be approaching a level in excess of available supply.

Just as elements of the real estate market were aware of the potentially devastating bubble they helped to create, individuals and institutions involved in world oil markets were playing dangerous games designed to maximize profits in the short-term at the expense of long-term stability. The real estate sector was devastated by a perfect storm of greedy speculators, deceptive appraisers, manipulative home loan officers and self-delusional home owners. The industries and individuals most reliant upon low oil prices were dealt a heavy blow by a combination of petroleum geology, excess consumption, geopolitics, and oil price speculation. The most important factors in this stew will prove to be petrol-geology and excessive consumption. In fact it can be stated that geology and consumption are the factors driving petrol-politics and petrol-speculation.

As the economy fell deeper and deeper into a recession, production slowed, trucking slowed, shipping slowed, air travel slowed, and people drove less. The price of oil dropped due to less oil being purchased. This substantial drop in oil prices will prove to be one of the most important factors leading to economic recovery, a sobering thought considering that economic recovery will likely mean a return to high oil prices.

The only hope of getting off of the oil price rollercoaster in the short-term is if individuals, industry, and government recognize that conservation of energy must increase, while consumption and growth driven economics decreases. Absent that sort of miraculous transformation of the American mindset our next best short-term hope is that strong regulation of financial markets will be instituted to, if not eliminate, then severely rein-in the type of irresponsible speculation that leads to boom and bust economic cycles. If the rest of the economy is built on a strong foundation of realistic expectations we will be better situated to absorb the shock of future oil price spikes while sustaining less damage to the economy.

Our greatest hope for economic stability in the long-term is that the issue of future energy supply decreases combined with the equaling frightening prospect of economic and ecological destruction due to global climate change will break through the fog of ignorance and denial and lead to a massive, rapid, and sustained global push for clean, sustainable energy that develops the most cutting edge renewable energy technologies beyond the “alternative” stage and into the mainstream of energy consumption where they belong.

My recently published letter to The LEO (magazine) regarding Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan

LEO Weekly

January 6, 2010

Letters to the Editor: Obama Has It Right

I have to disagree with both Stephen George and Jim Welp in their assessments of the president’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. Obama repeatedly campaigned on the issue of reducing troop levels in Iraq to increase troop levels in Afghanistan. He campaigned on capturing or killing bin Laden. He mentioned it in nearly every speech I heard him give.

There are many national security issues I think Obama has gotten wrong. He should have joined our NATO partners in supporting a ban on landmines. He should support criminal charges against members of the Bush administration. He should be supporting the pro-democracy movement in Iran. He should make a commitment to never issue an air strike that might put civilians in jeopardy no matter how high profile the target. And he should support re-opening investigations into 9/11.

But on the issue of troop levels in Afghanistan, I think he has it right.

The United States, USSR, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other nations are responsible for Afghanistan becoming a failed state. The United States funded an insurgency in order to “knowingly increase the chances” that the USSR would invade. The United States and USSR left Afghanistan in the “stone age.” The Afghanis didn’t do that to themselves. With no government and hence no law and order, a band of illiterate, far-right wing religious nuts were able to take over in 1996 and create the most brutal government of our age.

In Afghanistan, we are faced with roughly two choices. We could pull out immediately, which would be devastating to both international security and to the human rights of the Afghanis (who deserve the same rights that we do). Or we can increase troops to the levels that our military commanders say is necessary to stabilize the country and to capture or kill the leadership of al-Qaida and the Taliban, so we can leave things in better shape for both ourselves and the Afghanis.

Abel Ashes, Highlands

A letter I wrote to Judge Thomas F. Eagleton regarding Leonard Peltier in 2006

Thomas F. Eagleton United States Court House 111 South 10th Street St. Louis, MO 63102 Phone (314) 244-2600 FAX (314) 244-2605

To those honorable parties presiding over the Appeals Hearing of Mr. Leonard Peltier,

It has come to my attention that come February 13th, 2006 you will be presiding over a hearing regarding the case of Mr. Leonard Peltier. As an informed and concerned citizen I sincerely request that you thoroughly and honestly review this case and toward this end I hereby submit the following information for your consideration.

While the basis for the current motion is purely jurisdictional, you may also wish to review the overwhelming evidence of Mr. Peltier’s innocence as well as his vast humanitarian achievements in order to fully grasp the enormous miscarriage of justice that is Mr. Peltier’s thirty years of imprisonment.

Leonard Peltier is a citizen of the Anishinabe and Dakota/Lakota Nations and the crimes for which he has been wrongfully convicted took place within the sovereign nation of Lakota. I do not need to point out that due to the sovereignty of the Lakota Nation, aside from the Indian Crimes Act, there is no legal or constitutional jurisdiction in existance under which Mr. Pletier can have been tried. Consequently, it is purely a matter of upholding the law that Mr. Peltier’s conviction be overturned.

Not only did the alleged crimes take place outside of “the special maritime [or] territorial jurisdiction of the United States”, but evidence clearly demonstrates that Mr. Peltier was not only wrongfully convicted, but intentionally and malisciously framed for crimes which he did not commit.

As late as November, 2003, the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that much of the government’s behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and in its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. In Peltier’s original trial in has been shown that the FBI, the prosecution, and the court violated U.S., tribal, and international law:

1. By using a false affidavit from an incompetent witness to obtain Mr. Peltier’s extradition from Canada.

2. By the withholding of critical evidence including tens of thousands of FBI documents on Mr. Peltier’s case.

3. By fabricating evidence, including the ballistics evidence that was used to convict Mr. Peltier.

4. By intimidating witnesses, even going so far as to threaten the lives of the children of one mentally handicapped key witness who neither knew Mr. Peltier nor was present at the scene of the crimes for which he was convicted.

5. By hand picking the trial judge.

6. By prejudicing the jury against the American Indian Movement, in general, and Mr. Peltier in particular.

7. By banning key witnesses from testifying about FBI misconduct on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a sovereign nation for which the FBI has no legal jurisdiction.

8. By ruling important evidence, such as conflicting ballistics reports inadmissible.

9. By failing to produce a single witness who could identify Peltier as the shooter.

10. By concealing compelling evidence against several other suspects.

11. By lying about the nature of the investigation the FBI agents in question were alleged to be engaged in at the time of the shootings.

12. By selecting an all white jury of non-Lakotas in a non-Lakota court, thus violating Mr. Peltier’s right to trial by a jury of his own peers.

If you research these matters you will find that these facts are indisputable. I am far from alone in my belief in Mr. Peltier’s innocence and my request that he be set free. Among those convinced of Peltier’s innocence you will find such notables as:

1. Amnesty International, which has long called for Leonard Peltier’s immediate release on the grounds that Peltier does not have adequate recourse to justice and was not given a fair trail.

2. European Parliament, which in 1999 approved a resolution calling for Mr. Peltier’s release.

3. Queen Elizabeth of England, who has declared her belief in Peltier’s innocence.

4. The Reverend Desmond Tutu, who has demanded the release of Peltier, whom he considers to be a political prisoner akin to Nelson Mandela.

I humbly request that you carefully review the nexus of U.S. and Lakota constitutional law regarding the matter of tribal sovereignty and consider the ample evidence of Leonard Peltier’s innocence in making your ruling. If Mr. Peltier’s conviction can be overturned on sovereign nation grounds, then perhaps he can be granted a new trial in which all of the evidence can be presented, thus proving to the world Peltier’s innocence. You have an innocent man’s life in your hands and the power to correct a gross miscarriage of justice. Please do the right thing.

Sincerely,

Abel Ashes