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The Trentadue case is in court this week.  For those not following, a judge has allowed the brother (and attorney) of a man who mysteriously died in jail to grill FBI witnesses about whether they might have a video showing two men exit the Ryder truck on that fateful day.  Jesse Trentadue is trying to clear the name of his brother Kenney, who he believes was mistaken for John Doe Number 2 and beaten to death in a jail cell some months later.  The Feds claim he committed suicide.

They also claim they can't find anymore videos; should a video exist showing two men exiting the truck it would prove that "John Doe Number 2" was real, despite the FBI more or less erasing him some months after the attack.  By the way, this is not the only mystery video some associate with the FBI. 

Lots of theories on this, both right and left.  From a lefty perspective this one is about as good as any--basically the FBI wanted to cover up a far right wing conspiracy so if John Doe 2 exists he was probably someone from the militia movement.

But really, would that be Earth-shattering?  Most people probably got the sense that McVeigh and Nichols were right wing extremists and likely hung around with like-minded persons.  A few more or even some small cells hosteled in the mountains wouldn't be a big shock to most people. 


The far right also suspects the FBI, but some of them believe the FBI pulled off the attack.  Very much like 9/11 truthers, they reason that the government blew up their own building as part of the plot to take away our freedom and liberty through reactions like the Patriot Act.

This would indeed be Earth-shattering, but it's about as likely as Elvis being found alive and working at a Burger King.  Conspiracies become less and less likely as the circle of knowledge increases--some wold talk.  Besides, attributing evil to every person in the government, or at least career bureaucrats, is delusional.

Other right-leaning conspiracies involve a foreign aspect, specially a Muslim connection.   Some have speculated that AQ terrorists were perhaps assisting Terry Nichols make his massive truck bomb, since they had the expertise and had already attacked America.  Nichols was in the Philippines when AQ bomb expert Ramzi Yousef was there and wrote out a will before he left, as if he was expecting some danger.  This view has been mentioned by such noted figures as McVeigh's attorney Stephen Jones and former Clinton administration counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke in his book "Against all Enemies".

There was also an Iraqi connection theory pushed by reporter Jayna Davis, which has been shared by Bob McCarty.  Such a revelation certainly would change the view of the Iraq War but Davis' book isn't entirely convincing since the loose ends cannot be tied up.  Her main suspect seems more like a drifter loser than terrorist.  And McCarty's links are mostly dead now.  So not sure where that's going anymore.    

The AQ contact theory sounds more plausible and would be a little more Earth-shattering to the average Joe since it would suggest a widespread coverup of Islamic terror against America in the 90s, which would not look very good with 9/11 in the background.   It might make some question why those captured in the 90s weren't questioned more.       

There has been speculation the administration didn't want a foreign connection, attributed to former CIA official Vincent Canistraro. Considering who was running Justice and the WH at the time it certainly makes sense to believe they wanted domestic lone wolves, not a large network, assuming they were craven enough to try to steer the truth instead of letting it come out.  It's not hard to see Dick Morris advising on this.

As to what actually happened to Kenneth Trentadue, the facts may never come out.  Maybe he was beaten up and killed in his cell by overzealous guards or interrogators who mistook him for John Doe Number 2, then they tried to cover it up, but that's as far as it goes.  Or maybe he got tired of the rough treatment and killed himself as they said, and they were trying to cover up the previous beatings.  Maybe they told the truth in their report, as far-fetched as it might seem.  But finding out whether there were two suspects in the truck doesn't really solve it one way or the other unless the video conclusively shows Trentadue.  

And if the FBI was trying to cover up a foreign connection it doesn't necessarily say anything conclusive about Trentadue unless he was involved in the plot but wasn't John Doe Number 2.   As in the Nichols-AQ theory, it's not out of the question to speculate that far right wing domestic terrorists/neo Nazis might work with Jew/black-hating Islamic terrorists.  Trentadue could have also been in the wrong place at the wrong time, with no connections to anything, and there could still be a John Doe 2 cover-up. 

As to the question of a foreign connection, here's part of the final conclusion of the Rohrabacher investigation into the matter from 2006:

We have found no conclusive evidence of a foreign connection, but there remain questions that need to be answered before this final chapter can justifiably be closed. This investigation determined that many pieces of so-called evidence backing various theories of a foreign involvement were not based in fact. In some instances, our own research is inconclusive. Specifically, Hussaini and Strassmeir, as well as the Yousef phone calls, needed more investigatory attention. The Subcommittee investigators are dismayed that there remains a lack of willingness by the Department of Justice and others to examine certain legitimate issues. The overall assessment is inconclusive on the varied theories.

But there are a few people who could clear most of this up if we could dump some magic truth dust on them--Ramzi Yousef and Terry Nichols.  They reside together at the SUPERMAX prison in Colorado and neither seems to have been vigorously interrogated, at least such info is not in the public domain.  They both know whether they met each other in Cebu, Philippines in 1994.  Peter Lance has some theories on all of this but don't expect to see them on the big screen anytime soon, or at least not until a certain political faction has finally exited stage left.

COMPELLING   7/30/14

This story popped up some months ago then disappeared, now it's back:

Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is one of a number of lawmakers urging the government to declassify 28 redacted pages of a report investigating the attacks of September 11, 2001. Massie said at a press conference earlier this month that when he read the redacted pages of the report, titled “Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001,” he had to stop “every couple pages” to try to rearrange his “understanding of history.” “It challenges you to rethink everything,” he said

The speculation last time was that Saudi Arabia was involved somehow, but the congressman simply said it was 'embarrassing'. Since the description was both 'before and after' the 9/11 attacks, one has to wonder if some of this stuff has already come out in various blogs, books and websites over the years but has been ignored by the graniteheads in Washington--so it's news to them.  Or... maybe it's really something new that would change the way everyone thinks.

The bigger question is why these politicians keep teasing this story, as if the 28 pages may actually be declassified sometime soon. They say 'embarrassing', well, if it was embarrassing to Bush it would have come out long ago.  Think of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" movie being backed up by an official report from DC--nice fodder to leak before the 2004 election.  But nothing happened.

So it must be embarrassing to both Clinton and Bush, or perhaps mainly to Clinton, to some other protected entity.  Why would it come out now with Hillary teetering on announcing her campaign--unless that's part of the embarrassment.  Also, the Senate is close to releasing their tome on CIA torture, so perhaps this is the GOP somehow trying to push back.  Whatever it is, they've got a lot of people's curiosity up.