ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DENVER
SOURCE: Associated Press
Timothy McVeigh's attorney asked for access to government intelligence files Tuesday on the Ku Klux Klan, European neo-Nazis and Mideast terrorist groups, hoping to show the Oklahoma City bombing was the product of a far-flung conspiracy.
But a federal prosecutor insisted investigators have no evidence the bombing that killed 168 people and injured more than 500 others was the work of foreign governments or terrorists.
McVeigh and co-defendant Terry Nichols arrived at a courthouse secured by police convoys and electronic scanners. It was the first hearing in the case in Denver since a federal judge moved the bombing trial from Oklahoma.
Prosecutor Beth Wilkinson acknowledged the government at first put intelligence agencies to work on international angles to the bombing of Oklahoma City's federal building. But she said that within two days of the attack, ``the government learned through the FBI's diligent investigation that the bombing had been carried out by a U.S. citizen.''
``As of today, we have no information showing anyone but Mr. Nichols and Mr. McVeigh were the masterminds of this bombing,'' she said.
Stephen Jones, McVeigh's attorney, said if that is true, it is because intelligence agencies quit searching after McVeigh's arrest.
The attorneys argued over a defense request for classified information from the CIA and other government agencies about their brief search for a foreign culprit. Jones says the government has intelligence data on neo-Nazis in Britain and Germany; terrorist groups in Sudan, Iraq, Iran and Northern Ireland; and the Aryan Nation, The Order and other U.S.-based white supremacist groups.
He also is seeking purported statements from witnesses whose description of the suspects did not match McVeigh.
A list of 176 requested items was submitted to U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch on Monday.
In other developments:
* Prosecutors agreed to turn over letters from FBI agent Frederic Whitehurst, who tested McVeigh's clothes for traces of explosives. Whitehurst has claimed that investigators faked evidence in the bombing case.
* Nichols' lawyer, Michael Tigar, said he will ask that Nichols be tried separately from McVeigh because of the intense publicity. ``We believe Terry Nichols is entitled to better than a media circus,'' Tigar said. A hearing on the matter is set for Aug. 27.
* Wilkinson acknowledged defense assertions that ``inert explosives'' were being stored in the federal building at the time of the attack. She said the explosives were being used as training devices by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and were not armed at the time.
In agreeing to release the FBI agent's letters, Wilkinson said Whitehurst performed tests of McVeigh's clothing for explosive residue that turned up negative. But she said Whitehurst's testing did not affect other tests that showed explosives, and said the agent had been discredited in other trials.
Roy Sells, whose wife, Leora Lee, was killed in the explosion, said he came to the hearing ``to make sure in my heart that these are the ones that did it. I feel like I'm a hostage caught in a web with nowhere to go.''
The 62-year-old retired federal worker said if the defendants are convicted, ``I could pull the trigger or pull the switch or insert the injection.'' He said his wife of 37 years was ``the closest thing to an angel that will ever be.''
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB