FBI Presses Hunt; President Plans Action Against Terrorism : Probe: ‘Justice will prevail,’ President promises mourners at Oklahoma City memorial service. California lead turns into a dead end, officials say.
WASHINGTON — As thousands joined President Clinton on Sunday in mourning the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, FBI officials pressed a widening but often frustrating investigation that carried them deeper into the shadowy world of ultra-right-wing paramilitary organizations.
The President, addressing not just those at the memorial service in Oklahoma City but a national television audience on what he had declared to be a national day of mourning, urged Americans to recognize the “duty to purge ourselves of the dark forces which give rise to this evil.
“Justice will prevail,†he promised.
White House officials traveling with Clinton announced that he would take a series of steps to increase the government’s ability to fight terrorism, including legislation establishing a Domestic Counterterrorism Center, under the FBI, and creation of a special fund to be used to help the government infiltrate suspected terrorist organizations.
The Administration also plans to seek congressional approval of moves to increase the FBI’s authority to comb records such as hotel registers, to search phone logs and to get access to credit card records--steps that could create sharp debate over whether they violate civil liberties and constitutional rights to privacy.
Clinton also directed his Administration to replace the destroyed Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and ordered Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to lead a 60-day, high-level review of the vulnerability of federal buildings generally. There are more than 8,000 such structures in the country.
In a day of hopes raised and dashed in the search for those responsible for the bombing, a small army of federal and other law enforcement authorities continued their search for “John Doe No. 2.†He is suspected of being one of two men who rented the 1993 Ford truck that became the instrument of the worst incident of domestic terrorism in U.S. history--the destruction last Wednesday of the nine-story Murrah building.
What appeared briefly to have been a major break in the case, the arrest of a soldier believed to be absent without leave from Ft. Riley, Kan., turned cold by day’s end. The soldier, identified as David Iniguez, was seized at a home in Muscoy, Calif., and was briefly suspected of being John Doe No. 2. The one suspect now under arrest, Timothy J. McVeigh, had served at Ft. Riley, but officials later said they had found no connection between Iniguez and the case.
At the same time, federal agents were seeking Mark Koernke, a 38-year-old janitor in Michigan, for questioning. They have been told that Koernke, leader of a small paramilitary splinter group, and McVeigh once plotted to use explosives to sabotage a National Guard camp in Michigan.
They also want to question Koernke about a memo he may have faxed to a Texas congressman shortly before the Oklahoma blast. The memo contained what investigators think may be oblique references to the Murrah building.
Officials noted that, at this point, they only want to talk to Koernke.
By Sunday evening--108 hours after a massive combination of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil exploded at 9:04 a.m. CDT in Oklahoma City--the FBI had arrested McVeigh, suspected of having rented the Ryder rental truck with the so-far unidentified second suspect, and two other men. Terry Lynn Nichols and James Douglas Nichols, brothers with whom McVeigh has been linked, are being held as material witnesses.
The Nichols brothers are likely to be charged soon--possibly as early as today--with explosives and firearms violations, a source familiar with the investigation said.
Terry Nichols, whose Kansas house was searched Friday and Saturday, faces a likely charge of possessing illegal weapons, the source said. James Nichols, whose farm property in Michigan was searched at the same time, probably will be charged with construction of explosive devices, the source said.
In Oklahoma City, the grim task of recovering victims continued. Ray Blakeney, director of the Oklahoma state medical examiner’s office, said 74 bodies had been pulled from the wreckage, four fewer than had been reported earlier. The precarious state of the rubble has kept the search at an agonizingly slow pace and it may take two weeks to pull all the bodies out, Blakeney said.
Some 150 people remain missing. They are believed to be dead in the twisted, torn structure. About 400 people were injured in the blast. Searchers have yet to reach the part of the building that housed the office of the Social Security Administration and a day-care center where children were just sitting down to breakfast when the explosion occurred.
A nurse working with the search teams died of a brain hemorrhage Sunday morning, becoming the first rescue worker to die in the aftermath of the bombing. Rebecca Anderson, 37, a nurse at a senior citizens home, had slipped into a coma after debris from the devastated building fell on her Wednesday as she was trying to aid victims, said University Hospital spokeswoman Donna James.
In another development Sunday, it was learned that defense attorneys for McVeigh plan to file an application to withdraw from the case today, as well as a request that any trial take place outside Oklahoma.
John W. Coyle III, a prominent criminal defense attorney in Oklahoma City, and Susan Otto, an assistant public defender, have not publicly commented on the case. But a source close to the defense team said Sunday that the attorneys have received death threats and been subjected to other forms of harassment.
The source said the attorneys plan to ask for a change of venue because of the high level of publicity. They believe that the trial should take place in a neighboring state, preferably New Mexico, Colorado or Texas, the source said.
While the focus of the day was on the memorial service, investigators, working in Oklahoma City, Washington and such corners of small-town America as Herington, Kan., tried to piece together the shards of evidence that they hope will tell them not only who was involved in the blast, but whether they were just the most visible elements of a broad attack on the federal government.
The Memorial Service
More than 10,000 people jammed into the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds Arena and overflowed onto the nearby grounds to attend the memorial service: a tearful, emotional scene in a city that has responded to its collective grief with an outpouring of giving in time, blood and money.
Many in the audience clutched teddy bears, a wrenching reminder of the estimated 30 children who perished in a day-care center on the second floor. Some cradled photographs of lost loved ones. Nearly everyone, including Clinton, wore white and purple memorial lapel pins.
To an audience that included survivors of the bombing, relatives of those killed and scores of firefighters, police officers and others who have worked in the rescue effort, Clinton said: “We mourn with you.
“This terrible sin took the lives of our American family, innocent children in that building only because their parents were trying to be good parents as well as good workers; citizens in the building going about their daily business, and many there who served the rest of us . . ,†Clinton said. “Let us say clearly: ‘They served us well and we are grateful.’ â€
The Rev. Billy Graham, delivering the homily, said: “I pray you will not let bitterness and poison creep into your soul. A tragedy like this could have torn a city apart. But instead it has united you like you’ve never been united before.â€
The Janitor
As Oklahoma City and the rest of the nation mourned, the investigators’ web extended to Koernke, a 38-year-old custodian at the University of Michigan who sells a video called “America in Peril†and broadcasts a shortwave radio program called “The Intelligence Report.â€
Investigators, according to CBS News, believe that Koernke may have sent a fax that arrived at the office of Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.), shortly before the bombing. The fax contained cryptic information about the Oklahoma City federal building: “First update. Bldg 7 to 10 floors only. Military people on scene--BATF/FBI. Bomb threat received last week. Perpetrator unknown at this time. Oklahoma.†Koernke initially aroused federal agents’ interest because of a plot that, they had been told, involved McVeigh, officials said. Investigators believe that Koernke has some knowledge of that alleged plot.
A National Rifle Assn. spokesman said Sunday that Stockman, a freshman lawmaker, received the fax and his office then forwarded it to the NRA.
The memo did not reach investigators until two days later, and federal authorities are trying to learn why, according to CBS. Stockman said his staff threw the fax away when it came in, and fished it out of the trash later after learning of the bombing. He said it was turned over to the FBI without delay. An FBI spokeswoman had no information about the memo.
The fax came to light by way of the Michigan Militia Corps, a paramilitary organization, which said that it found the plot so extreme that it would not participate. A spokesman for the militia, Matthew Krol, said the group had reported the plan to federal authorities earlier this year.
The plotters were planning to sabotage an old Soviet tank being used for training exercises by the Michigan National Guard at its Camp Grayling base, according to Krol.
Kevin Shane, another man said by Michigan Militia Corps members to have been involved in the alleged Grayling plot, said the sabotage tale had been fabricated because of internal unit politics. Shane, who lives in Lake Orion, Mich., said he resigned from the militia in February.
Koernke, a self-described former Army intelligence officer who is known in the paramilitary political world as “Mark from Michigan,†had been expected to appear voluntarily Sunday night before a board of inquiry formed by the militia to investigate reports of the sabotage plot. A militia member waited for three hours, Krol said, but Koernke did not show up.
Krol said he had learned that Koernke left his farmhouse on a country lane outside Dexter, Mich., Sunday afternoon, traveling “at a high rate of speed.†Neighbors said men in black shirts and jeans were loading two pickup trucks at Koernke’s house this morning.
Koernke was involved with the militia when it was organizing itself but “we kind of distanced ourselves,†said Lynn Jon Van Huizen, commander of the Michigan Militia Corps in 13 counties.
So, Krol and Van Huizen said, Koernke formed his own militia. “They’re not following our code of conduct,†Van Huizen said.
His neighbors outside of Dexter, near Ann Arbor, said that they saw a tank (without its cannon) in Koernke’s front yard during the summer, and on several occasions, said one man, two semi-tractor trucks were parked by Koernke’s blue farmhouse about 3 a.m.--and were gone about half an hour later.
At least half a dozen cars have brought people for meetings there every Friday night, the neighbors said. And three or four times a year, they have heard the sounds of guns being fired in the woods after dark, the fusillades lasting for hours.
Of three heavily armed men arrested in September in Fowlerville, Mich.--with night-vision goggles, six loaded semiautomatic weapons, three revolvers, 700 rounds of ammunition, gas masks, two-way radios and bayonets--two told police that they were bodyguards of Koernke.
“The Grayling incident,†as Van Huizen calls the plot to sabotage the Soviet tank, was another example of differing conclusions. The would-be saboteurs, he said, were convinced that the Soviet equipment was to be used in the coming “new world order,†in which the United States would come under a world government. Van Huizen said the militia “does keep track of foreign troop movements on our soil†but that “this equipment is old. It’s outdated. It certainly posed no threat.â€
Koernke’s nephew, John Koernke, of nearby Ypsilanti, Mich., said Koernke, the son of a Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputy, “never was a delinquent or anything. He got all As and Bs†at Dexter High School, graduating in 1975.
He remembers playing soldiers as a youngster with his uncle. “One thing stood out,†John Koernke said. “He said he wished he were going to Vietnam so he could get shot and come back a hero.â€
Mark Koernke won a scholarship to the University of Michigan, his nephew said, but instead attended Eastern Michigan University for one year, during which he enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps. During Army service, he was stationed at Ft. Huachuca in Arizona as an intelligence analyst, his nephew said.
He left the Army under circumstances that were vague, at least to the family, John Koernke said. Soon afterward, he got the janitor’s job at the Mary Markley dormitory on the university campus.
But at some point he changed. Koernke would tell the others that “there was going to be a war and a blood bath,†John Koernke said.
Over the years, those convictions grew firmer, according to his nephew.
“He said some outlandish things,†John Koernke said. “He showed me this picture. It showed these young people at a campaign stop for Clinton with their hands up to greet him. The President--he wasn’t the President yet--was at the podium. He said they were paying homage to a king.â€
Koernke is married with four children ranging in age from 12 to 16.
The Soldier
David Delgado Iniguez, 23, was arrested shortly after at 8:30 a.m. Sunday in front of a weather-beaten stucco house at 3033 Macy St. in Muscoy.
FBI agents said Iniguez had been arrested on “unrelated charges,†and they would not comment on any possible links he may have to the bombing in Oklahoma City.
Except for the fact that Iniguez and McVeigh both served at Ft. Riley, “there’s nothing to connect him with this case,†said a source close to the investigation. It was not clear whether the two were stationed at the base at the same time and, the source said, it was not certain whether the two knew each other.
The Army said Iniguez was listed as having gone AWOL from Ft. Riley on Aug. 23, 1994, and was officially declared a deserter in September.
The End of a Search
Several days of intense FBI activity in the small farming town of Herington, Kan. came to a close on Sunday when agents began to dismantle their operations and leave town. They had focused on a storage locker linked to Terry Nichols, and on his home. They left after giving no indication that they had found significant evidence.
The search began Friday, when Terry Nichols drove up to the tiny police department headquarters in Herington, approached Police Chief Dale Kuhn, and said, according to Kuhn: “My name is Terry Lynn Nichols and my name is on the TV. I want to find out what’s going on.â€
Kuhn said he was relieved to see the investigation come to an end in a town that has never experienced such attention before.
“I have seven people under me, and I’ve worked them till they’re bleeding in the eyes,†he said.
Terry Nichols had worked as a ranch hand in the region, answering an advertisement placed by rancher Jim Donahue in Marion, Kan., 25 miles south of Herington.
The Suspect
At the red-brick Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church in Pendleton, N.Y.--adjacent to the parochial grade school that McVeigh attended and where McVeigh’s father, William, is described as an active parishioner--worshipers at a baptism Mass were asked to pray for the children who died in Oklahoma City and for the McVeigh family.
The church bulletin on Sunday said:
“It is difficult for us to imagine, to understand, the incident in Oklahoma City. Such destruction! Such loss of life. We may never understand the motivation of those involved; we must be careful that we do not recommend violence as a cure for violence.
“One of the persons allegedly involved in this incident is from our community. His family members are our neighbors. We reach out to them in this time of stress; we pray that they may be strong in their faith during this time of crises.â€
After the service, Msgr. Paul J. Belzer said he last saw Timothy McVeigh about four years ago, when the young man, who turned 27 on Sunday, had brought back souvenirs from his stint in the Persian Gulf War.
“He was a hard worker and always seemed to land on his feet,†Belzer said.
Gerstenzang reported from Washington and Pasternak reported from Dexter, Mich. Times staff writers Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington, Richard A. Serrano and Richard Simon in Oklahoma City, Louis Sahagun in Herington, Kan., Tom Gorman in Muscoy, Calif., Jim Newton in Los Angeles and Tina Daunt in Kingman, Ariz., contributed to this story. Also contributing were special correspondents Mike Clary in Oklahoma City and Bill Steigerwald in Pendleton, N.Y.
More Coverage on Oklahoma
* GOP TROUBLE--Anti-government, anti-gun control militias could present Republican leaders with political problems. A12
* BRACING FOR HORROR--Search teams edged closer to a cavity where up to 125 bodies remain buried under the rubble. A13
* DEADLY MIXTURE--Experts debate whether the common fertilizer used in the blast should be so easily available. A16
* RELATED STORIES, PHOTOS, GRAPHICS: A12-A16
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
