Tag: bombings

Utah Attorney Catches FBI Deception In OKC Bomb Records Case

Last month, the Justice Department asked a judge to pause a lawsuit seeking records about the FBI’s involvement with the Oklahoma City bombing. But in doing so, the DOJ and the FBI made statements so misleading they merit sanctions, according to the plaintiff in that case, Utah attorney Jesse Trentadue.

The deception spotted by Trentadue stems from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit he filed against the FBI in February, seeking records about Roger Edwin Moore, who was a CIA asset, an FBI informant and a business associate to OKC bomber Tim McVeigh; as well as for records about the Aryan Republican Army, a neo-Nazi bank-robbery gang also involved in the attack.

Trentadue filed the lawsuit after waiting nine years for the FBI to process his FOIA request for those records. Despite that long wait, the FBI then asked a federal judge for another nearly 12 years to release the records he seeks.

Then, last month the bureau represented to a federal judge that many of the records Trentadue wants are already on the FBI’s website. But according to Trentadue, that’s a lie.

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FBI Wants 20 Years To Produce Records On Its Involvement W/ OKC Bombing

It’s been about nine years since Utah attorney Jesse Trentadue filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records about a CIA asset and FBI informant who helped fund the Oklahoma City bombing, as well as for records about a neo-Nazi bank-robbery gang also involved in the attack.

Tired of waiting, Trentaudue sued the FBI over the matter in February, demanding the bureau to produce the 69,375 pages of documents that it’s holding. But now, the FBI wants to take another nearly 12 years to fork over those documents to him, which means that it would take at least 20 years for the bureau to comply with his initial FOIA request.

Such a slow production rate is unacceptable, Trentadue said in a Tuesday court filing.

“The FBI proposes to process these records/documents for release to Plaintiff in monthly increments of 500 pages over a period of 11.5 years!” he said.

“If the Court accepts the FBI’s proposed snail-pace processing of these materials, Plaintiff will be close to 90-years of age when he finally receives all of them,” he said.

“He has already waited almost a decade for these documents/records, with the FBI having made no effort during the interim to produce them, and should not have to wait another 11.5 years to receive them.”

Trentadue has been suing the U.S. government for OKC bomb-related records for nearly 30 years, ever since his brother was murdered in a federal penitentiary. The complex story of how the death of Trentadue’s brother relates to the OKC bombing can be read in this Mother Jones article.

Trentadue’s latest lawsuit seeks records on FBI informant and CIA asset Roger Moore (not the James Bond actor), and the bank-robbery gang, the Aryan Republican Army, which he says was an FBI front group.

According to Trentadue’s lawsuit, Moore was an FBI informant as part of the bureau’s 1980s- and early 90s-era Operation Punchout, which was designed to identify and apprehend surplus dealers that bought and sold government property stolen from Department of Defense facilities in Utah.

Furthermore, Moore build patrol boats for use by the US Navy in the Vietnam War, as well as speedboats for the CIA, according to Aberration in the Heartland of the Real—historian Wendy Painting’s PhD thesis-turned-book about OKC bomber Tim McVeigh.

As for the Aryan Republican Army, Trentadue believes that was an FBI front group that also helped fund the bombing.

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Blinking in disbelief at Boulder’s tribute to terror

The deaths of six young, militant activists in Boulder a half-century ago — who evidently blew themselves up by accident with time bombs they intended to plant and set off — were of course sad.

Not because they died for a noble cause. They did not.

But because, as with any untimely passing amid the bloom of youth, they likely could have amounted to much more in life. If only these self-styled warriors of that era’s Chicano movement had given themselves a chance to mature, to put their political passions into broader perspective. Instead, they cut their own lives short in a misguided crusade of violence.

Fortunately, the fledgling terrorists — suspected in other local bombings besides the two that took their lives — didn’t wind up harming others. It could have turned out much worse.

All of which could be regarded as no more than a morbidly interesting if obscure page from Colorado history — if today’s political opportunists didn’t insist on turning them into martyrs.

Last week, amid the 50th anniversaries of the May 27 and May 29, 1974 botched bombings, the city of Boulder dedicated a memorial to the culprits. They now are lionized as “Los Seis de Boulder,” by the way. There’s also a memorial to The Boulder Six nearby on the University of Colorado-Boulder campus — in front of the building authorities believe the six had hoped to blow up — and a scholarship at CU has been established in the bombers’ memory.

Yes, really.

That the “Six” put the lives of untold innocent bystanders and passersby at grave risk — presumably, to make some sort of statement about society’s inequities — doesn’t seem to matter. Indeed, only the Six’s incompetence prevented dozens, maybe hundreds of casualties.

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When Israel Bombed AP’s Gaza Office

On May 15, 2021, as part of its “Operation Guardian of the Walls” military campaign in Gaza, Israel bombed the Associated Press offices’ building, based on the still evidence-free claim that the AP headquarters “housed Hamas”. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the week prior, IDF bombed two other office buildings that “housed more than a dozen international and local media outlets.”

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) gave the tenants of the al-Jalaa Building in Gaza—which included AP, other news agencies including Al-Jazeera, and residential homes—a stern warning. IDF informed them they had one hour to evacuate their homes before the building would be bombed by Israeli missiles. Sixty minutes and three Israeli missiles later, the 12-story building was leveled to the ground.

The IDF posted a short vague statement that provided no evidence for their claim the building was being used by terrorists but made sure to repeat the term “Hamas terror organization” four times, in just four sentences—five times if you count “Hamas military intelligence” in the headline.

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36 Years Ago Today, Police Fire Bombed a Neighborhood in Philly, Killing Women & Children

Since the beginning of time, there has been a constant struggle between people who want to be free and those who seek to control them. It is an unending war that that rages just beneath the surface of “civilized” society, waiting to reach a boiling point where violence can erupt on the streets between police and citizens—or the oppressor and the oppressed.

Since our history is passed down by those who seek to control us, this struggle is framed in a way where the oppressors are always the innocent victims, and the oppressed the senseless terrorists when in reality, the opposite is usually true.

Nowhere is this situation more obvious than in the media coverage and cultural myths surrounding the American Civil Rights movement. Police would regularly raid the offices and homes of civil rights leaders, shooting first and asking questions later. In fact, many civil rights leaders did not make it through the 60s and 70s alive, and most of the original Black Panthers were either killed by police or imprisoned for life. Yet this aspect of the situation was entirely absent from the media reports of the day and is even rarely discussed in modern times.

One of the worst acts of police terrorism against the Civil Rights movement occurred on May 13, 1985, when the Philadelphia Police Department bombed the homes of a black liberation group called MOVE, killing 11 people, five of whom were children.

MOVE was a Philadelphia-based organization formed by Civil Rights leader John Africa in 1972, with the goal of creating a radical change in society by creating communities that lived according to their own rules and values, instead of under the authority of the federal government. MOVE crowdfunded the purchase of multiple adjacent homes in the city to build their headquarters, where members of the group lived communally and planned protests. Unfortunately, it was not long before they caught the attention of local police, who were threatened by their philosophy and their presence in the community.

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Michigander Who Allegedly Told Cops He Wanted To ‘Blow Up’ Satanic Temple Indicted On Explosives Charges

A Michigan man who allegedly revealed he had explosive devices because he wanted to blow up The Satanic Temple (TST) in Massachusetts last year faced explosives-related charges Wednesday, according to federal prosecutors.

Luke Isaac Terpstra, 30, of Grant, Michigan, “has been charged with transporting an explosive with the intent to kill, injure, or intimidate individuals or to unlawfully damage or destroy a building,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Michigan. Terpstra was also separately charged with illegally possessing a destructive device, according to the statement.

Terpstra built several improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and transported them together with some firearms and ammunition from Michigan to the TST location in Salem, Massachusetts in Sept. 2023 with a self-professed intention to “blow up” the temple, prosecutors alleged in the statement.

Michigan’s Grant Police Department arrested Terpstra Jan. 2 following an investigation and charged him with Explosives — Possession of Bombs with Unlawful Intent, according to a mid-January joint statement by Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo and Salem Police Chief Lucas Miller. He appeared to have visited Salem to plan the attack but did not seem to have contacts in Salem, the joint statement observed.

The arresting officers found Terpstra with IED-making materials such as “a plastic container with coins attached to it and a piece of cannon fuse coming out of the lid; numerous metal carbon dioxide (CO2) cartridges; PVC pipe; ammonium nitrate; and hobby fuses,” according to the prosecutors’ statement.

Terpstra’s mother and stepfather aided the investigation, according to WZZM 13.

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FBI Records Link OKC Bomber to Bank Robbers, Suggesting Case is Still Unsolved

This Friday marks the 29th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, which killed at least 168 people, including 19 children in the deadliest domestic terrorist event in U.S. history.

While that attack may seem like ancient history for some, one attorney in Utah continues to pursue lawsuits against the Justice Department for records about it. The attorney, Jesse Trentadue, thinks that others helped the supposed “lone wolf,” Timothy McVeigh. Specifically, Trentadue has implicated the Aryan Republican Army, or ARA, a gang of neo-Nazi bank robbers who were operating around the same time as McVeigh.

Contrary to Trentadue’s theory, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who helped prosecute McVeigh, continue to insist that the bomber acted alone—receiving only minor help in gathering explosives material from accomplice Terry Nichols.

Garland and the other officials insist there was no link between the ARA and McVeigh. Their media mouthpieces, such as The Washington Post, have said the same. Amidst the ARA and McVeigh’s criminal proceedings in 1997, the Post declared there was “no proof that McVeigh knew the Aryan robbers.”

But the records provided by Trentadue indicate otherwise. Those records show that the FBI also thought McVeigh and the ARA were in cahoots.

One set of previously unpublicized records provided by Trentadue even shows that the FBI directed its field offices to investigate potential McVeigh-ARA links within days of the April 1995 attack. The records are briefly referenced in an epic biography of McVeigh, but have otherwise remained hidden for the last nearly 29 years—until now.

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Trans Antifa member arrested over bombing at Alabama Attorney General’s Office

A trans person with links to Antifa was arrested and charged with the February detonation an improvised explosive device, a nail bomb, outside the Alabama attorney general’s Montgomery office.  

Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, 26, of Irondale, Alabama, was indicted on Wednesday and charged with malicious use of an explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device. 

The charges per the indictment allege that Calvert “maliciously damaged, and attempted to maliciously damage, by means of fire and explosive materials, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office,” and that Calvert “knowingly possessed a firearm, to wit: a destructive device… which was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.” 

A detention memo from a US attorney’s office stated, “That device had the characteristics of an IED, and Calvert added a substantial number of nails and other shrapnel to increase its destructive capability.” 

The explosion was outside the office of Attorney General Steve Marshall on February 24, in the early hours of the morning, at approximately 3:42 am. Surveillance footage showed an individual wearing dark clothes, a mask, and goggles near the statehouse.  

In addition to the explosive device, law enforcement officers discovered that Calvert vandalized state buildings with stickers that were advocating for various political ideologies. These included Antifa and anti-police sentiments as well as sentiments expressing opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Some of those stickers read, “Support your local antifa,” and surveillance footage showed the individual putting the stickers on the doors of the Alabama State Capitol Building. Shortly thereafter, the suspect could be seen near the attorney general’s office, right before the explosion. They were then seen walking away. 

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CIA Deployed Bomb Technicians To Capitol Area On Jan. 6, New Records Show

The Central Intelligence Agency deployed two bomb technicians to assist with a pipe bomb found at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 and there were “several CIA dog teams on standby,” according to records obtained by Judicial Watch.

References to CIA involvement on Jan. 6 were included in text messages obtained from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) under a U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit Judicial Watch filed in 2023 against the U.S. Department of Justice.

“These striking records show that CIA resources were deployed in reaction to the January 6 disturbance,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a March 13 news release.

Among the 88 pages of heavily redacted records obtained by Judicial Watch is a group of text messages labeled “Jan. 7 Intel Chain” that includes two references to CIA assets in use or on standby on Jan. 6, 2021.

“FC I has two CIA bomb techs with us—EEO [redacted] in route,” one text read. Just prior, what appeared to be a text from the ATF said, “Our assets: SRT in Capitol with Group I, Groups II and III assisting with pipe-bomb scene on New Jersey and D St. SE.”

The CIA bomb techs are referenced in a text later that afternoon as “helping Capitol Police bomb squad clear Capitol.”

Another text refers to the availability of K9 units to assist in clearing buildings. “7 NGA dog teams, 2 ATF and several CIA dog teams on standby,” the text said.

The disclosures are the first documented references to the CIA having any involvement in response to the protests, chaos and later rioting at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Two pipe bombs were discovered near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6: one in an alley between the Capitol Hill Club and the Republican National Committee building, and the other in the bushes on the southwest side of the DNC building. Despite a three-year federal investigation and an offer of $500,000 in reward money, no arrests have been made.

The names of most of the participants in the group text are redacted in the records turned over to Judicial Watch. One name on the text chain is Ashan M. Benedict, the ATF’s incident commander in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 who in December 2023 became assistant chief of U.S. Capitol Police.

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The Pipe Bombs Before Jan. 6: Capital Mystery That Doesn’t Add Up

The newly disclosed video shows a dark SUV pulling up to the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., at 9:44 a.m. on Jan. 6, 2021. It sits for several minutes until a uniformed man with a bomb-sniffing dog enters from the right and steps up to the vehicle. The driver complies with his command, the dog sniffs inside and outside the car which is soon allowed to enter the parking garage. The man and his dog exit back to the right.

This scene is unremarkable except for one detail: The uniformed man and his trained canine came within a few feet of where a plainclothes Capitol Police officer would soon discover a pipe bomb that had been planted there the night before. The bomb, which the FBI has described as viable and capable of inflicting serious injury, along with a similar one found at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee, would appear to be the most overt act of violence perpetrated on Jan. 6.

Responding to the video discovered by this reporter, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, the Georgia Republican who chairs the House Oversight Committee subcommittee now conducting a separate inquiry into Jan. 6, asked, “How could a bomb-sniffing dog miss a pipe bomb at the DNC? We’ll add this to our long list of unanswered questions and continue getting to the truth.”

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