-Caveat Lector-
FOX NEWS NETWORK
THE O'REILLY FACTOR (20:20 ET)
March 20, 2001, Tuesday
Transcript # 032002cb.256
HEADLINE: Was Osama Bin Laden Involved in the Oklahoma City
Bombing?
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM
AND MAY BE UPDATED.
O'REILLY: Tonight, shocking testimony at the pretrial hearing of
Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols, who has been convicted in a
federal court and now is facing state proceedings.
Investigative reporter Jayna Davis, who worked for the NBC
affiliate in Oklahoma City, uncovered evidence that Nichols had
ties to the terrorist Osama bin Laden before the bombing that
killed 168 people. Timothy McVeigh has also been convicted in the
case and will be put to death on May 16th. And Ms. Davis says
there were other people involved beside him and Nichols. But when
she took her information to the FBI, she says, well, here's what
she told me.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'REILLY: Jayna, it seems the Department of Justice all along
wanted to make the Oklahoma City bombing and investigation simply
a domestic terrorist incident. But your information is different.
Tell us about it.
JAYNA DAVIS, FORMER KFOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, back in
spring of 1995, I was working for the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma
City and I was assigned to look into people responsible for the
bombing. And what we discovered, an intelligence source at one of
the highest levels in the federal government later confirmed, was
a Middle Eastern terrorist cell living and operating in the heart
of Oklahoma City just a few miles from the Alfred P. Murrah
Building. And through the course of our investigation, we located
several witnesses that we deemed very credible at the station and
they testified and told us that they identified an Iraqi
national, a former member of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard
through his own admission later, as being in the company with
Timothy McVeigh the day of the bombing, prior to the bombing in
Oklahoma City, in the Ryder truck, in the passenger seat of the
Ryder truck, stepping out of the truck in front of the Murrah
Building just moments before the blast and speeding away from
downtown in a brown Chevrolet pickup that was identified by the
FBI as a possible getaway vehicle and an official all points
bulletin that was identified the day of the bombing.
O'REILLY: All right, let me stop you then. But the Justice
Department has never caught anybody there, never brought anybody
in or told the press that there was this man, correct?
DAVIS: Yes, that is correct. From what has been publicly stated,
they said that they did not believe that there was a foreign
connection to the bombing.
O'REILLY: Right, now, you do believe there is?
DAVIS: Yes, I do.
O'REILLY: Do you have any other evidence?
DAVIS: Yes. We have 24 sworn witness affidavits that ties seven
to eight Arab men to various stages of the bombing plot from the
beginning all the way to the day in which the plot was executed.
I have several police records, court records, public court
documents that I've amassed, hundreds of documents. I've spoken
to law enforcement officials. I've spoken to intelligence
experts, terrorism experts, all who confirm various aspects, the
most crucial aspects of the witness testimonies.
O'REILLY: Who is behind, then, the bombing, in your opinion? Not
McVeigh and Nichols?
DAVIS: Yes. The evidence that we have gathered definitely
incriminates McVeigh and Nichols. Let me make that clear. They
were in it up to their eyeballs, according to the evidence we
were able to look into. However, it really is a foreign
conspiracy masterminded and funded by Osama bin Laden, according
to my intelligence sources.
O'REILLY: Do you have any other information other than, you know,
anonymous sources to back up that bin Laden was behind McVeigh
and Nichols doing this?
DAVIS: I have what has been published on the court record the
writ of mandamus that was filed just prior to McVeigh's trial by
his defense team, that a witness in the Philippines, a member of
Abu Sayyef (ph), a terrorist group that has been identified as
being funded by Osama bin Laden, identified Terry Nichols in the
presence of Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the World
Trade Center bombing, and several of his coconspirators in that
bombing, and that they were discussing bombing activities prior
to the Oklahoma City bombing. That is on the court record.
O'REILLY: Do we know that Terry Nichols was, indeed, in the
Philippines?
DAVIS: Yes, he was. He had a mail-order bride. And I did an
undercover hidden camera interview with his ex-wife, Lana Padia
(ph), in which she admitted to me ver openly that she felt as if
his travels to and from the Philippines, his cover story was
having a mail-order bride. But he would go down there by himself
on many occasions without his bride.
O'REILLY: So now let me recap. You found out that there was a
Republican Guard from Iraq accompanying Nichols and McVeigh on
the day of the bombing. You
