("Quid coniuratio est?")
Person A: "I am John Doe #2."
Person B: "I am John Doe #2."
Person C: "I am John Doe #2."
John Doe #2 is either (a) an army private; (b) an Iraqi; or (c) in Tulsa Oklahoma. John Doe #2 either does or does not exist. The details:
The official story is that John Doe #2 is an army private who, yes, rented a Ryder truck but, no, did not rent it on the same day as Timothy McVeigh.
But, KFOR in Oklahoma City is standing by their story that yes, there really was a John Doe #2 involved in the bombing of the Murrah Building and that he is an Iraqi national.
But, KPOC in Ponca City, Oklahoma, has had private investigators looking into the case and they say that, no, John Doe #2 is none of the above but is, in fact, holed up in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
As Art Bell bemoaned on his radio talk show,
You know what makes me kind of sad? I don't know who to believe any more. I have no idea who to believe any more. There was a day, in this country... I can remember, when I was a child, when the FBI would come forward and, you know, the podium, and they would make an announcement about a "big arrest". Or... But there was something about the credibility of the FBI: when they said something, you believed them. And later information did not come along to show that they were "full of it". The FBI's statements were credible! Very, very credible. And so now, that day is kind of gone. And I don't know whether to believe the FBI, what KFOR and others are saying... I have no idea!!
What Art Bell is mis-perceiving, however, is that there was some magic day in the past when the FBI told us the truth. Really, the FBI has always lied to the American public. It's just that now we are becoming more aware of it. Art Bell errs when he sees dawning public awareness as an indication that the FBI used to be credible but now is not. The FBI was never credible, it's just that people used to believe them and now they don't.
Still, I can see how Bell would pine for the "good old days" when you weren't forced to think for yourself and you could just relax, and let the "experts" take care of that.
But where are Kitty Carlisle, Orson Bean, et cetera, now that we need them? Here we have three John Doe #2s. Will the real John Doe #2 please stand up? A caller to Mr. Bell's program expressed the view of many: "I don't know who did it. There are a number of possibilities. But I'll just say that the government is making itself look more and more suspicious." To which Bell responded,
The whole thing is suspicious. What is going on?? What is going on with this story? I'm sure, down at KFOR Television they're probably saying exactly the same thing! The twists this has taken, and the timing of the twists, is very suspicious. And I really don't like conspiracy theories. I don't. And I'm not embracing one now -- not necessarily. However, I am puzzled.
(Notice how Bell is careful to distance himself from "conspiracy theories". It's still risky to declare that you believe them.)
So what about the witnesses who swore they saw John Doe #2 in a brown Ford pickup truck in Oklahoma City? How credible are they now as witnesses in prosecuting the government's so-called "case"?
And what about that story where the brown pickup truck was supposedly seen pulling off to the side of the highway when McVeigh got pulled over by the police for speeding in a car with no license plates? And what about all those John Doe #2s who were getting detained from here to Timbuktu soon after the bombing? Do the authorities just say "Oops"?
So who're ya gonna ask? Answer: Ask Skolnick; he knows. So I called Sherman Skolnick of the Citizens' Committee to Clean Up the Courts. While stressing that even he, as of yet, does not positively know just who the real John Doe #2 is, he did offer the following educated guess as to what is going on:
What they're trying to do is, since the Justice Department is caught with a monstrous lie about this "fertilizer bomb", which apparently is not what happened, they want to switch situations and blame it on an international conspiracy. And then, because Clinton has so many domestic problems, perhaps it becomes simple to bomb against Bagdad.
So, it appears that Skolnick would say that both "John Doe #2 A" and "John Doe #2 B" (i.e. the army private and the Iraqi) are both imposters and that the real John Doe #2 is the KPOC version, currently in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tom Valentine concurs:
[Tom Valentine, Radio Free America, 6/14/95] There's something wrong, rotten in Denmark. I heard on the radio today [6/14/95] a blurb -- and I guess a lot of you have heard the news -- that our FBI is now saying that John Doe #2 was "not what they thought". He's just "an innocent bystander".
And that's "cover story #2". 'Cuz "cover story #1" didn't work -- that he was an Iraqi -- that came out in Oklahoma City KFOR television a couple nights ago. That was the first cover story. That didn't work. Now, we're told, John Doe #2... Everybody that listens to this show [Radio Free America] regularly knows that John Doe #2 is in Tulsa and that he certainly has a history of consorting with Tim McVeigh. And that at one time he was an ATF informant. And there's probably a lot more about him that the authorities would not want to bring out. And this is why they are not acting on the tips of the private investigators who found it all.
So it appears now that both "John Doe #2 A" and "John Doe #2 B" are the imposters and that "John Doe #2 C", the Tulsa John Doe #2, is the genuine article. To all of you who have been following our show, To Tell The Truth, our thanks and tune in again.
I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"