Oklahoma Grand Jury Hearing More Evidence

• The people will hear more evidence of the Murrah building bombing, in spite of mainstream objections.

As The SPOTLIGHT has been reporting for months, the special county grand jury on the oklahoma City bombing has been empaneled.

Preliminary activities of the grand jury, which was called by petition of the people of Oklahoma County, were in progress as The SPOTLIGHT went to press this week, including an inspection of the county jail, a custom for commencing an Oklahoma grand jury.

As expected by state Sen. Charles Key (R), the six-term legislator who led the petition drive, federal and state officials are already pooh-poohing the people of Oklahoma City's opportunity to find out the truth about the bombing.

The Justice Department contends, Timothy J. McVeigh was the mastermind of the plot, involving two of his Army buddies, Terry L. Nichols and Michael Fortier. Or was it a much wider plot as many believe?

McVeigh was recently convicted of the bombing in federal court in Denver and has been sentenced to death. Nichols will stand trial next. Fortier was given immunity from prosecution in the case for "cooperating" with the federal prosecution.

Some of the burning questions that will be delved into by the grand jury include:

• What happened to the mysterious John Doe No.2 and perhaps even others involved in the crime?
• Did a single bomb, packed in the back of a Ryder rental truck, devastate the A.P. Murrah Federal Office Building, with the loss of 169 lives.?
• Did federal authorities have forewarning of the bombing and then choose to ignore it? What connection did the mysterious Andreas Strassmeir (and others) have to Timothy McVeigh and/or people involved in the bombing?

FEDERAL INTERFERENCE

One question the grand jury, and those supporting it, are already dealing with is whether the federal government will cooperate with the panel's probe.
Historically, the answer is probably not, particularly if it can be avoided. Already, state officials are indicating that the grand jury probe may interfere with the federal prosecution of Nichols.

For example, the federal government refused to cooperate with the New Orleans investigation by District Attorney Jim Garrison into the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy and did everything it could to sabotage Garrison's efforts.

Ironically, Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating (R) calls the grand jury "unneeded."

"It would be impossible for a local grand jury to match the most "massive" than investigation of Kennedy's assassination -- and yet even JFK's killing remains officially unresolved.

"We call these people (grand jurors) in off the street," said Oklahoma County district Attorney Bill Macy, who fought a losing battle in state court to kill the grand jury effort. "They're just ordinary citizens.

"You know very little about them when they're impaneled as a grand jury," he added. "There's always a possibility somebody could do something like Hoppy Heidelberg."

Heidelberg of Blanchard, Oklahoma, is the federal grand juror who went public after everyone, including federal prosecutors and federal judges, refused to listen to his concerns about not being able to delve into the involvement of others in the bombing.

Key has announced that he has formally asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which ruled against Macy and others who attempted to trash the petition drive, to "fully and openly investigate the crime."

Also included in this request is Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, who also fought the creation of the grand jury.

Key said that it was decided to make the request to the state supreme court because thare are no mechanics in the Oklahoma grand jury laws to remove a prosecutor or to seek the appointment of a special prosecutor, one not tied to either the local prosecutor or the state attorney general.

Oklahoma's mainstream media has trashed Key and the grand jury effort. The Tulda World, as an example, stated "the last thing Oklahoma needs is a state grand jury to redo the federal investigation," failing, of course, to mention that Macy has indicated he plans to take McVeigh and Nichols to trial for the alleged murder of the 160 Oklahomans not included in the federal indictment.

The Daily Oklahoman accused Key of "pandering...to help conspiracy theorists from across the political spectrum create the equivalent of the of the grassy knoll in Dallas..."