That's a great story, Grant! here's the text from fuckedworld...
Here's a discovery to unsettle the average American and elate the average conspiracy theorist: Take a look at these two pictures. Notice any resemblence? The picture on the right is Abdullah al-Muhajir, aka Jose Padilla, whom the U.S. government claims is an al Qaeda operative recently arrested on suspicion of planning a "dirty bomb" radioactive attack on the U.S. And the picture at left? Why, that's John Doe No. 2, the still-unaccounted-for co-conspirator from the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995! What, you say, what? You mean the FBI somehow failed to notice this? Or did they?
The visual observation was first made by Bryan Preston at the Junkyard Blog. But wait, there's more! Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh had connections to Florida, where the freshly converted al-Muhajir was living at the time of the OK attack. Nichols, additionally, was married to a woman by the name of Lana Padilla (!). Lana Padilla allegedly claimed in a news conference (apparently only quoted by whacked-out conspiracy nuts and apparently refuted in subsequent news interviews) that Nichols was paid in gold by a bearded Islamic man associated with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, while Nichols was in the Philippines, a known al Qaeda stronghold. While the bearded Islamic man may be apocryphal, the Philippines connection is not. Nichols lived there for several years and is suspected to have met with al Qaeda members during that time.
The conspiracy buffs (and some mainstream sources too) have long ranted about what they saw as an FBI failure to investigate links between US right-wing militants and Islamic fundamentalist groups. I am not wholeheartedly endorsing the content on some of these pages I'm linking to, but they might have a point.
The police sketch seems to be a pretty accurate depiction of Padilla. Are there more connections? Tough call. It's hard to imagine the Dub administration passing up a tidbit like this. If there was a chance in hell, you would expect them to be all over it. In addition to bolstering their case for Padilla as an "exception" to constitutional rights, I imagine Ashcroft and the boys would be happy to spread the blame for ignored clues and missed opportunities to the Clinton administration, where the buck stopped during the OK attack. And yet... And yet...
Anyone with specific and verifiable information and/or links for a further expansion of this story should e-mail me.
Note: This first came to my attention as a Fuckedcompany message board (not associated with this site), the meat of which was also forwarded to me by a reader, D.F. Specifically, the Lana Padilla link came from that source. I later found the Junkyard Blog listing which apparently originated this discussion via a posting at Metafilter. I assembled the pieces as I found them, with a little supplemental juice and slightly strong pictures (I think). I'm adding fuel to the fire, so I can see what color the smoke is. But it wasn't my brilliant idea that nailed this down. It's the Internet at large, and Bryan Preston specifically who got the ball rolling. Credit where it's due. |
