CNN Lou Dobbs - Moneyline

Aired September 9, 2002

LOU DOBBS: The possibility that Iraq was involved in the September 11 terrorist attacks is often discussed.  Middle East expert Laurie Mylroie explained why she believed so here Friday.  She also believes Iraq was behind the 19993 attack on the World Trade Center. Another less frequently voiced theory was that  Iraq was partly to blame for the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.  A former television reporter Jayna Davis has spent several years trying to investigate and prove an Iraqi connection. She joins us tonight. Jayna, good to have you here.

FORMER INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER JAYNA DAVIS:  Thanks for having me. 

DOBBS: I think most people would say what about Nichols, McVeigh? This case is open and shut.  Why do you persist in trying to find an Iraqi connection?

JAYNA DAVIS:  Because the evidence is overwhelming. Although there is no dead-bang connection to the nation of Iraq for sponsorship, there are very compelling indicators. I was working as a reporter for the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City, and one of the first reporters on the scene of the Oklahoma bombing of the federal building. And, one groundbreaking lead to our station led me directly to the doorstep of what several esteemed intelligence experts have told me was a Middle East terrorist cell, Lou, living and operating in the heart of Oklahoma City.

And several witnesses, 22 in all, have signed sworn witness affidavits and positively identified eight Middle Eastern men acting in collusion with McVeigh and Nichols at various stages of the bombing plot. Those Middle Eastern men, the majority of whom are Iraqi soldiers. One soldier in particular, Lou, is Hussein Al-Husani (ph), and he was identified by seven witnesses, tying him to Timothy McVeigh, the Ryder truck, downtown Oklahoma City and the get-away vehicle aggressively pursued by the FBI the morning of the bombing.

DOBBS: You realize, Jayna, that there is great incredulity as we listen to your statements about an Iraqi cell operating in Oklahoma City, being involved in this, because simply the authorities have in no circumstance suggested such a connection. Yet you say that your sources, presumably intelligence sources, are the ones who validated the information that this person was Iraqi, and eight other Iraqis. What has been the response of the federal authorities and local authorities in Oklahoma City, and nationally to what you are suggesting here tonight?

DAVIS: Well, all I can say is this, that this information may have innocently fallen through the cracks of a massive federal investigation, Lou.

However, what I can explain is why the FBI turned me away in 1997, when I tried to surrender the evidence to the Bureau directly. And they told my attorney that the Department of Justice did not want any more documents for discovery to turn over to McVeigh and Nichols defense teams. When the FBI finally took custody of the evidence in 1999, because I repeatedly knocked on the door, they took the 22 sworn witness affidavits about the specific identification of Arab men involved in the Oklahoma City bombing.

They did not call one witness, Lou. They did not interview them. And to this day, the man identified by several witnesses, as John Doe 2, cannot provide one witness affidavit to establish his whereabouts for the morning of April 19. And to this day, the Department of Justice has been unable to provide an explanation to the Government Reform Committee investigators who have been looking into this for five months, as to why they never questioned this possible Iraqi John Doe, and why they have never officially cleared him on the record.

DOBBS: Where do you believe John Doe #2, as referred to, and where do you believe he is, and whom do you believe he is? DAVIS: Well, I believe that he is a former Iraqi soldier. I submitted this investigative file to the former chief of human intelligence, to the Defense Intelligence Agency. And this gentleman studied the background of Hussein Al-Husani (ph).

What information we have from this international rescue committee records, and the INS, and also studied a very distinctive military tattoo on his upper left arm. And he came to the conclusion that most likely, Hussein Al-Husani (ph) served in the Republican Guard and was recruited by the elite unit 999 of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. And this is based, this service, is based out of Salmanpac (ph), which is southeast of Baghdad, and is responsible for carrying out clandestine operations at home in the Middle East, and abroad.

Where do I believe he is today? I believe he went on to Boston. I have information that in 1997, four years before the suicide attacks of 9/11, before those hijackings, Hussein Al-Husani (ph) told his psychiatrist in confidence that he was afraid of working at his job at Boston Logan International Airport, because if there was a terrorist strike there, quote, "I would be blamed for it."

DOBBS: What is next for you?

DAVIS: Next for me is I am continuing to work with investigators on the House side and Senate side, and I am hoping the American people will demand answers for these questions in congressional hearings.

DOBBS: Jayna Davis, thank you for sharing your views and raising the questions.

DAVIS: Thank you for having me.