wildcard
1st April 2010, 12:15 PM
Things that make you say hmmm.
CIA can withhold records on Oklahoma City bombing
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14786362
Federal court » Judge says documents are exempt from disclosure
By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 03/30/2010 05:43:38 PM MDT
A federal judge in Utah says the Central Intelligence Agency can withhold documents on the Oklahoma City bombing investigation and prosecution, agreeing that the records were properly withheld for national security and other reasons.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups reveals for the first time that the CIA worked with the Department of Justice on the bombing probe, according to Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue, who requested the records under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Twelve documents connected to the investigation were at issue, including an April 20, 1995, cable that outlines a prosecutor's attempt to extradite an "organized crime figure from another country." Other records include cables sent in April and May 1995 relaying information provided to a U.S. ambassador by a foreign official; information from a "foreign liason contact" that is classified as secret; and information from a foreign government about the possible identification of a suspect in the bombing.
The general descriptions were provided by the CIA in refusing Trentadue's FOIA requests for documents on potential involvement of foreign nationals in the attack. The lawyer -- who received some documents with only the name of the agency to which they were directed and others that were withheld entirely -- argues in his suit that the dozen documents should have been released to him.
The CIA says it complied with FOIA and that each
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document falls under a category exempting it from release. The agency and Trentadue both filed motions asking Waddoups to find in their favor in the dispute, leading to the judge's ruling on Friday.
Trentadue believes the records could provide information about the death of his brother in a federal prison cell in Oklahoma City a few months after the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Kenneth Trentadue, a 44-year-old convicted bank robber who was being held on an alleged parole violation, was found hanged in August 1995.
Authorities say Trentadue committed suicide, but his family believes the inmate was mistaken for a bombing conspirator and that guards strangled him with a set of plastic handcuffs in an interrogation that got out of hand. To support that theory, Jesse Trentadue has filed several lawsuits over the years in Utah's federal court seeking records on the bombing investigation. The suit before Waddoups was filed in 2008.
Timothy McVeigh was convicted of carrying out the bombing and executed in 2001. Conspirator Terry Nichols is serving a life sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colo.
Documents requested by Trentadue include ones on Andreas Carl Strassmeir, a German national who he believes might have been an associate of McVeigh.
On a separate issue, Trentadue on Monday filed a motion asking Waddoups to order the government to produce videotapes collected from surveillance cameras on the exterior of the Murrah Building on the morning of the bombing. The motion says the FBI has not responded to his requests for those tapes.
pmanson@sltrib.com
CIA can withhold records on Oklahoma City bombing
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14786362
Federal court » Judge says documents are exempt from disclosure
By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 03/30/2010 05:43:38 PM MDT
A federal judge in Utah says the Central Intelligence Agency can withhold documents on the Oklahoma City bombing investigation and prosecution, agreeing that the records were properly withheld for national security and other reasons.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups reveals for the first time that the CIA worked with the Department of Justice on the bombing probe, according to Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue, who requested the records under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Twelve documents connected to the investigation were at issue, including an April 20, 1995, cable that outlines a prosecutor's attempt to extradite an "organized crime figure from another country." Other records include cables sent in April and May 1995 relaying information provided to a U.S. ambassador by a foreign official; information from a "foreign liason contact" that is classified as secret; and information from a foreign government about the possible identification of a suspect in the bombing.
The general descriptions were provided by the CIA in refusing Trentadue's FOIA requests for documents on potential involvement of foreign nationals in the attack. The lawyer -- who received some documents with only the name of the agency to which they were directed and others that were withheld entirely -- argues in his suit that the dozen documents should have been released to him.
The CIA says it complied with FOIA and that each
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document falls under a category exempting it from release. The agency and Trentadue both filed motions asking Waddoups to find in their favor in the dispute, leading to the judge's ruling on Friday.
Trentadue believes the records could provide information about the death of his brother in a federal prison cell in Oklahoma City a few months after the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Kenneth Trentadue, a 44-year-old convicted bank robber who was being held on an alleged parole violation, was found hanged in August 1995.
Authorities say Trentadue committed suicide, but his family believes the inmate was mistaken for a bombing conspirator and that guards strangled him with a set of plastic handcuffs in an interrogation that got out of hand. To support that theory, Jesse Trentadue has filed several lawsuits over the years in Utah's federal court seeking records on the bombing investigation. The suit before Waddoups was filed in 2008.
Timothy McVeigh was convicted of carrying out the bombing and executed in 2001. Conspirator Terry Nichols is serving a life sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colo.
Documents requested by Trentadue include ones on Andreas Carl Strassmeir, a German national who he believes might have been an associate of McVeigh.
On a separate issue, Trentadue on Monday filed a motion asking Waddoups to order the government to produce videotapes collected from surveillance cameras on the exterior of the Murrah Building on the morning of the bombing. The motion says the FBI has not responded to his requests for those tapes.
pmanson@sltrib.com