JW Sues Iraq for Shocking Connection to Oklahoma City Bombing

For more than six years the federal government has claimed Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols acted alone in the April 19, 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City. But Judicial Watch has uncovered shocking evidence that agents of Saddam Hussein were involved in planning and executing the attack that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.

In fact, according to court documents and witness testimony, none other than Ramzi Youssef, who is now serving 240 years in prison for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, was the master terrorist pulling the strings for Iraq.

“The government is simply not telling the truth about what occurred on April 19, 1995 in Oklahoma City,” said JW Chairman Larry Klayman. “Bill Clinton tried to blame Rush Limbaugh and conservatives for the bombing when he should have pointed the finger at Iraq. Once again it’s up to Judicial Watch to bring it to the American people, especially to the survivors of the attack.”

Judicial Watch has filed suit on behalf of 14 survivors of the bombing, naming Iraq as the defendant.

The Means

According to the complaint, “Prior to the Gulf War, Iraq had developed a covert network in the United States to acquire materials for weapons of mass destruction. After the Gulf War, Iraq converted that network into organized terrorist cells. Those covert Iraqi procurement and terrorist activities directly involved Oklahoma City, OK.”

In 1987, Sabawi Ibrahim al Tikriti, a half brother of Saddam Hussein, and Dr. Ihsan Barbouti, an Iraqi, attended a meeting in London for the purpose of acquiring a fuel additive company in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. An offer was made to the owner and a deal secured whereby Barbouti would produce a shopping list of chemicals for shipment overseas. These chemicals included the same two ingredients later mixed to make the Murrah building truck bomb.

A Criminal Investigation agent for the U.S. Customs Service would issue a report in 1990 that revealed a partnership between Barbouti and another individual to acquire technology and weapons for Libya and Iraq. It would later be learned in a Florida court case that the “other” individual was Youssef.

In 1989, seven barrels of sodium cyanide were diverted from a plant in Boca Raton owned by Barbouti and shipped to Iraq. Three years later, Youssef would attempt, but fail, to release this same chemical into the ventilation system of the World Trade Center as part of the 1993 bombing.

The Opportunity

After masterminding the World Trade Center bombing, Youssef would temporarily hide out in the Phillipines and join with several other terrorists to plot an intricate series of terrorist attacks on the United States, code named “Project Bojinka.”

In order to carry out his terror campaign, the complaint alleges Yousef recruited potential terrorists at Southwest College in Cebu City, including Terry Nichols. Witnesses say Nichols went to the Phillipines for the expressed purpose of learning how to build a bomb.

Nichols’ passport records show he was indeed in the Phillippines at the same time as Youssef. In fact, Phillipine intelligence believed Nichols was a Pakistani, Arab or U.S. national. Further, Nichols would eventually marry a Filipino woman who lived for a time at the same boarding house as Youssef.

When the attack on Oklahoma City was carried out, one of Youssef’s henchmen admitted verbally and in writing that Youssef’s “liberation army” was responsible. Add to this the dramatic similarities between the 1993 World Trade Center attack and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing (both used Ryder trucks and the same type of fertilizer bomb), and the connections become obvious.

According to the US News and World Report, “a few top Defense officials think Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh was an Iraqi agent. McVeigh also authored an essay in which he defended Iraq’s right to “stockpile chemical or biological weapons.”

Long after Nichols and McVeigh were in custody, the global law enforcement entity, Interpol, was still seeking out at least two foreign individuals it believed were connected to the bombing.

The Motive

After the Gulf War cease-fire, Saddam Hussein made his feelings about the United States crystal clear at a speech on November 3, 1992 in Ramadi, Iraq, saying, “The mother of battles…has continued and will continue.” First Deputy Prime Minister Taha Yasin Ramadan went further, saying the Iraqi people would “avenge the pure blood that has been shed no matter how long it takes.”

Subsequent to the United States’ victory in Iraq, however, several other important events raised the stakes for Saddam Hussein.
  • First, Youssef was arrested on February 7, 1995 for the World Trade Center bombing. Hussein feared the Iraqi connection would be revealed compromising, other “Project Bojinka” attacks.
  • Second, a U.S. military effort was launched in March 1995 in conjunction with the Iraqi National Congress, Iraq’s government in exile.
  • Third, the U.S. announced in March 1995 that it would veto any United Nations proposal to lift sanctions on Iraq.
  • Finally, on April 10, 1995, just nine days before the Oklahoma City bombing, the United Nations inspection team filed a report that indicated that Iraq still had a biological warfare program. The report raised the prospect that sanctions would never be lifted.
“Iraq had the means, opportunity and motive to carry out this attack,” said Klayman. “It’s time the whole story about the Oklahoma City bombing is revealed and that justice is done for Iraq’s state sponsorship of that brutal attack on American citizens.”