More from Dave Neiwart of Orcinus, this time on the recent revelations in the Oklahoma City bombing case. Neiwert outlines the conspiracists' theory that white supremacist bank robbers and others were involved in the OKC bombing.

Most notably, it was the entire subject of Mark S. Hamm's book In Bad Company: America's Terrorist Underground, published in 2002. According to Hamm, four cells of the ARA were involved. In Hamm's report, the first cell comprised "the bomb builders" -- Steven Colbern, Dennis Malzac, and a third "phantom bomb builder" -- while McVeigh, Nichols, and Michael Fortier constituted the second cell, whose role was "to plan and develop a strategy for the bombing." A third cell for "information, training, weapons, and logistical support" was led by Andreas Strassmier. It also included Denis Mahon and a Elohim City resident, Michael Brescia, whom some have fingered as John Doe No. 2. The fourth and final cell was in charge of financing, which, like The Order in 1984, was largely the product of bank robberies. This was the public ARA, led by Peter Langan, and included Brescia, as well as four others: Richard Guthrie, Kevin McCarthy, Scott Stedeford, and a Posse Comitatus leader, Mark Thomas. All of these ARA participants are either dead (Guthrie committed suicide) or behind bars, except Brescia and Thomas, who both served time and are free now.

Like David, we find the theory wanting in several respects. Nonetheless, it's good that the investigation is being re-opened--provided it's a real one and not just a "going through the motions" type one.

Over objections by the prosecution, the Judge in Terry Nichols' state trial will allow death row inmate David Hammer to testify at Nichols' trial. The prosecutors argued Hammer is not a credible witness:

Hammer spent time with McVeigh on federal death row before McVeigh was executed in 2001. Hammer claims McVeigh gave him the identities of coconspirators including John Doe 2, a mystery man some claim to have seen with McVeigh on the day of the bombing, defense attorney Mark Earnest said.

Nichols' attorneys contend Nichols was set up by unknown coconspirators involved with McVeigh in the plot to bomb the building. Hammer's testimony was bitterly opposed by prosecutors, who described Hammer as "one of the least credible sources ever to serve time" in an Oklahoma prison. Assistant District Attorney Lou Keel said Hammer once threatened to kill him and a judge and blow up the Oklahoma County Courthouse.

Hammer is on federal death row for the 1996 murder of his cellmate, Andrew Marti, at the Allenwood Federal Penitentiary outside Williamsport, Pa.

Hammer has co-written a book with another death row inmate about what McVeigh allegedly told him, due out this month. It's titled "Secrets Worth Dying For" and is described as containing "details of being on death row with Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy James McVeigh and revelations about others involved in the 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City."

David Paul Hammer #24507-077 is on Death Row in Terre Haute, Indiana. His execution is now scheduled for June, 2004. Mr. Hammer's website is here. The Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty offers free websites to death row prisoners.

Here are some interesting pictures:

Michael Brescia

This is still our favorite though:

John Doe 2 and "Dirty Bomb" Suspect Jose Padilla.

More on the Aryan Republican Army (ARA) is here.

Note: We are not vouching for the accuracy of these internet photos and news reports, just pointing them out.

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This is news. The Associated Press reports that one unit of the FBI had information that McVeigh sought help from a group of white supremacist bank robbers days before the Oklahoma City Bombing, and failed to share the information with the FBI unit investigating the bombing:

The FBI believed Timothy McVeigh tried to recruit additional help in the days before the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and gathered evidence that white supremacist bank robbers may have become involved, according to government documents never introduced at McVeigh's trial.

The retired FBI chief of the Oklahoma City investigation, Dan Defenbaugh, said he was unaware of some evidence obtained by The Associated Press and that the investigation should be reopened to determine whether the robbery gang was linked to McVeigh.

The evidence never shared with Defenbaugh's investigators or defense lawyers includes documents showing the Aryan Republican Army bank robbers possessed explosive blasting caps similar to those McVeigh stole and a driver's license with the name of a central player who was robbed in the Oklahoma City plot.

Does this mean others were involved?

McVeigh's ex-lawyer said the evidence obtained by the AP is the strongest to date to show what he has argued for years -- that the bombing conspiracy may have involved more people than McVeigh and Nichols.

"I think these pieces close the circle, and they clearly show the bombing conspiracy consisted probably of 10 conspirators," attorney Stephen Jones said. "They (government officials) simply turned their backs on a group of people for which there is credible evidence suggesting they were involved in the murder of 160 people."

Some of the original documents cited in the article are available here.

You can read more from older news articles here and here.

This could be good news for the Terry Nichols defense team. The judge has ruled that he may present evidence of a wider conspiracy in the Oklahoma bombing if he can back it up with specific overt acts.

Mr. Nichols is going to be allowed to present his defense," Taylor said, ruling that prosecution motions to prevent Nichols from presenting evidence of other bombing suspects were premature.

Defense attorney Mark A. Earnest said Nichols' defense team does not plan to offer the names of other conspirators. He said the defense wants to present circumstantial evidence that Timothy McVeigh conspired with others, possibly members of the Aryan Republican Army, a white supremacist group with anti-government views, to bomb the P. Murrah Federal Building. Defense attorneys say the conspiracy was set up to cast blame on Nichols and shield other conspirators.

If Nichols can establish others were involved with McVeigh, the jury might believe he had a lesser role, warranting a life sentence instead of death. The federal jury that convicted him gave him a life sentence. We still don't see how he can get a fair trial anywhere in Oklahoma, particularly in McAlester, a town filled with prison guards and munitions factory workers, but nonetheless, this is a crumb for the defense.

More than 350 potential jurors were sworn in yesterday. Jury selection (voir dire) begins March 1.

We are headed back to Denver and very grateful to TChris for all his great posts this weekend. We'll be back after the finale of Sex and the City tonight. (Our prediction: Carrie will come back to the U.S. with Big but refuse to marry him.) In other news, Terry Nichols' retrial in Oklahoma is set to begin March 1. It is in McAlester, Oklahoma--home of Oklahoma's death row, munitions factory and prison system. That speaks volumes about the potential jury pool.

Nichols' has offered to plead guilty and take a life sentence, but that's not good enough for those who want him dead. A recent poll of Oklahomans shows that most of them do not want this trial.

A recent Tulsa World poll found that 70 percent of Oklahomans feel the expense of a state trial is unnecessary since Nichols is already serving a life sentence. An earlier poll, for The Oklahoman, found a majority of state residents would prefer a plea bargain to a trial.

Not even the families of the victims are in accord on the issue:

Jim Denny makes an unlikely advocate for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols. His two children still suffer from injuries received when the explosion ripped through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
For his role in the terrorist attack, Mr. Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without parole. But on March 1, he will face a new trial on state murder charges - and nearly nine years after the bombing, many Oklahomans say enough is enough.

"The federal government did a great job trying both McVeigh and Nichols," says Mr. Denny from his home in Oklahoma City. "But this state trial is the biggest waste of money and waste of time. There comes a time when we have to let go." Denny is not alone. In a recent poll sponsored by the Tulsa World, 70 percent of those surveyed opposed a state trial, which has already cost taxpayers $4 million. The resistance isn't just about money, say mental-health experts; it's about progress, and a sign that Oklahoma is healing.

We will be following this trial closely when it begins.

Kobe Bryant: The Game of His Life
by Jeffrey Scott Shapiro

It was bound to happen. A former tabloid journalist was bound to write a book claiming inside details of the Kobe Bryant case. The book is by former Globe reporter Jeff Shapiro, who also wrote about the JonBenet Ramsey case.

Shapiro will be giving away his book Monday to journalists at the courthouse in Eagle, the next scheduled hearing date.

The book boasts interviews with the accuser. If she did speak with the Shapiro, we think the defense will have more support for their argument that she waived her privilege of confidentiality in her medical records.

Other purported book revelations:

• Whose DNA was detected in the woman's underwear the day she had her rape exam. Court testimony has revealed it was from someone other than Bryant.

• The story behind the implication by Bryant attorney Pamela Mackey that the accuser had had sex with three men in three days.

• What Bryant, 25, said in his first police interview the night after the alleged rape, when officers spoke with him for 75 minutes but didn't tell him they were tape-recording the conversation. The defense wants Bryant's statements thrown out, but they're said to be crucial to the prosecution's case.

Shapiro is now a law student in Florida. He says that after graduating, "he hopes to establish a foundation to help people fight back when they feel they've been victimized by tabloid tactics."

Need we say more?

The race issue surfaced today during a pre-trial motions hearing in the Kobe Bryant Case. At issue are notes taken by an employee of the rape crisis center who was present during a police interview with Kobe's accuser.

The rape center opposes the release because it might deter other women from coming forward--the center's attorney used the acquittal of William Kennedy Smith in a 1993 Palm Beach sexual assault trial to support its argument.

Kobe's lawyer, Pamela Mackey, quite correctly in our view, asked the judge not to consider other cases and to decide the issue based on Kobe's case.

Inga Causey, attorney for the Resource Center of Eagle County, said more details about Bryant's accuser would lead to fewer women reporting rapes. She said rape reports dropped in Florida after William Kennedy Smith was acquitted, a case in which his accuser's medical background was targeted by defense attorneys.

At that point, Mackey urged the judge to focus on the Bryant case and avoid the "political agenda of the rape crisis center."

"There is lots of history about black men being falsely accused of this crime by white women," Mackey said. "I don't think we want to get dragged down into this history any more than we want to get into the history brought up by the rape crisis center."

We'll be debating the case tonight on Fox News with Hannity and Colmes around 9:30 p. ET.

A new defense filing (pdf) in the Kobe Bryant case says that Kobe's accuser is bi-polar and the jury needs to know this:

Bipolar disorder is also known as manic depressive illness. It is characterized by movement between extremes, such as euphoria and depression, and can be a serious and disabling mental illness.

The documents say the accuser's medical and mental history may demonstrate her "motive, scheme, plan and modus operandi for falsely accusing Mr. Bryant of sexual assault" and should also be considered as a jury determines her credibility.

How so?

Kobe Bryant wasted no time --as soon as his court hearing in Eagle was over, he was off to LA where he opened the second quarter of the Lakers game against the Denver Nuggets:

Kobe Bryant didn't arrive back from a court hearing in Colorado in time for tipoff against the Denver Nuggets, but he started the second quarter. Bryant spent the day in Eagle, Colo., for a motions hearing involving his sexual assault case.

About 35 minutes after tipoff, he walked to the bench wearing his warmups, bounced on his toes and stretched his legs. Fans shouted his name and cheered. Bryant bumped fists with the scoring crew and walked on the court to start the second quarter.

No big news in the case today as the Judge put evidentiary issues off until January--except for the embarassing announcement by the DA that his office got two of the anti-Kobe t-shirts that made the news last month.

Defense attorney Pamela Mackey called the shirts inflammatory and derogatory and said they've been characterized as racist and "evocative of (a Ku Klux) Klan lynching."

....In an embarrassing admission, Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said someone in his office ordered the shirts and that he and chief deputy prosecutor Greg Crittenden were each given one by "an unknown source."

Hurlbert said he immediately destroyed his shirt, but Crittenden held on to his until Thursday. Neither wore the shirts, he said. Even Hurlbert supporters said his office goofed up.

Update: Our view of the t-shirt issue, as reported by the press November 6:

Mental health and medical records of the accuser in the Kobe Bryant case are likely to be the focus of today's hearing :

In their boldest move to cast doubt upon the credibility of the woman, the defense attorneys have asked District Court Judge Terry Ruckriegle to admit into evidence the woman's Feb. 23 and May 30 suicide attempts and prescribed anti-psychotic drug treatment. "The purported suicide attempts are highly relevant to establish the accuser's motive, scheme, plan and modus operandi of creating drama in her life in order to get attention," Mackey wrote.

Mackey also wrote that the accusations against Bryant were a continuation of woman's "pattern of engaging in extreme, dangerous, attention-seeking behavior without regard to its effects on those around her. Her behavior and treatment with an anti-psychotic drug also make it more probable that she is not to be believed."

Victims advocacy groups are upset by the motions. We're not:

Veteran Denver criminal defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt backed Mackey and Haddon's strategy.

"They are not abusing the process but using creative and solid lawyering," Merritt said. "Her credibility is relevant. They are using the facts to explain why this woman might have made up this story. They are doing everything they can for their client."

Although, a lot of today's hearing may take place behind closed doors due to the sensitive nature of much of the evidence being fought over, the media will be out in force and reports should be plentiful.

Update: The Judge denied the Prosecution's motion for an investigation into media leaks.

Kobe Bryant filed his pre-trial motions today. He is seeking to introduce evidence of his accuser's two purported suicide attempts and of her being prescribed anti-psychotic medication (pdf format). He is also challenging the constitutionality of the rape shield law(pdf format)--on it's face--because the standard for admitting prior bad acts of the accuser is higher than that provided for admitting prior bad acts of the defendant. You can access and read the motions at the court's website here. Note that all pleadings are in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

The defense motion characterizes her as an extreme attention seeker and says her suicide attempts were done to gain the attention of her former boyfriend.

"The purported suicide attempts are extreme attention-seeking behavior that illustrate the accuser's ulteriour motives, scheme and plan to engage in dramatic acts in order to draw attention to herself--even when these acts are extremely harmful to herself and others.

We think the issue of anti-psychotic medication is very relevant to the accuser's credibility. Was she on the medication at the time of the incident with Kobe? Had she abruptedly stopped taking it? Did it skew her perceptions? Did it cause her to distort reality? Did it render her in denial?

Kobe is facing life in prison over this charge. We think he has the right to bring out information that shows the accuser has a motive, history or propensity for lying or that her emotional instablility may have resulted in her fabricating the rape charge.

Update: The AP reports on the motions. Kobe's lawyers are moving to keep his t-shirt (which reportedly had some of the accuser's blood on it) out of evidence:

The defense said the T-shirt should not have been taken as evidence because Bryant was wearing it during the search, and the warrant authorized them to take only items from the room, not his person.