Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505040118
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and The Washington Post
DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY LENGTH: Medium
With thousands of tips still to be followed up on, a federal grand jury has begun sorting through evidence in the secret confines of Tinker Air Force Base outside Oklahoma City.
The bombing's death toll reached 146, with a child's body among those found Wednesday. Twenty-eight people were missing, according to the state medical examiner's office.
While there have been frustrations in the past few days, those knowledgeable about major investigations say the public shouldn't conclude the case has bogged down.
``The time that has passed since this incident is merely days. There's no reason the government shouldn't take another couple of weeks to gather all the evidence before making a final charging decision,'' said a former federal prosecutor who insisted on anonymity because of current involvement in a government case.
There have been initial successes: the arrest of Timothy McVeigh, a rich harvest of evidence linking him to the bombing, and connections to James and Terry Nichols, two Michigan brothers in custody who shared McVeigh's penchant for bomb-making and anti-government rhetoric.
There also have been high-profile failures. Most notable: the dramatic arrest and subsequent midnight release of Gary Alan Land and Robert Jacks, two drifters whose travels seemed to connect them to McVeigh.
Although the two were released after interrogation and lie-detector tests, the FBI still was checking their movements. Two agents interviewed the manager of a motel in Marshall, Mo., where Land and Jacks reportedly stayed last month.
``Their names came up,'' said the motel manager, Louise Henricks. ``I'm not commenting on what they asked about.''
Federal officials say such interviews are part of the process of sorting through 14,000 tips received on a special hot line since the government posted a $2 million reward. ``Sometimes they turn out to be hot, sometimes they turn out to be cold, and that was the problem yesterday,'' White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said on CBS. ``But, frankly, the investigation continues at an aggressive pace and we're confident that ultimately we'll catch the culprits.''
Even Jacks approves.
``The FBI is doing their job the way they should,'' he said. ``Anybody connected with this bombing, they're questioning them, they're checking them out.''
The zeal to find those responsible, particularly the suspect known as ``John Doe 2,'' has caused temporary frights for at least a dozen men from California to Canada who resemble the FBI sketch of the swarthy, square-faced man.
People have been stopped at gunpoint and questioned before being released.
``You're always going to have look-alikes,'' said FBI spokesman Dan Vogel. ``But in a case like this, we'd be criticized if we didn't check them out. ... We have an obligation to.''
On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick said the Clinton administration planned to drop its proposal to give the president absolute power to designate groups as terrorist organizations.
Under the administration's proposed legislation to combat international terrorism, Americans would be prohibited from raising funds to support groups the president deemed as terrorist. The original bill would not have allowed court challenges to the president's designations.
Asked later by a reporter about the change, Gorelick referred to criticism from civil liberties groups and said administration officials had decided the ban on court challenges was not necessary.
by CNB