EDITED TAPES? - AT 5:55 P.M. ET:  I have an almost visceral reaction to conspiracy theories.  I think most of them are insane, often devised to make money, are sometimes politically motivated, and often do damage to historical understanding.  The conspiracy theories surrounding the JFK assassination, especially the notion that the CIA did it, were particularly damaging.  Oliver Stone's reckless film, "JFK," misled its youthful viewers.  Even the History Channel has fallen prey at times.

However, I'm willing to listen if someone comes forward with real evidence.  I've always been uneasy about the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, believing that we may not know the full story.  Once a "right-wing" conspiracy was identified, journalists seemed perfectly content to leave it at that.  All talk of other connections was shut down rather quickly. 

Now, 14 years after the event, there's a new development that may - I stress may- be of significance.  It appears that some of the surveillance tapes that caught the bombing were edited.  The AP picked up the story:

Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday.

A Southwestern Bell security camera recorded people fleeing the building in the seconds after the Oklahoma City bombing. The time on the recording is slightly behind the established time of the explosion -- 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995.

"The real story is what's missing," said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.

Trentadue gave copies of the tapes to The Oklahoman newspaper, which posted them online and provided copies to The Associated Press.
The tapes turned over by the FBI came from security cameras various companies had mounted outside office buildings near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. They are blank at points before 9:02 a.m., when a truck bomb carrying a 4,000 pound (1,815 kilogram) fertilizer-and-fuel-oil bomb detonated in front of the building, Trentadue said.
"Four cameras in four different locations going blank at basically the same time on the morning of April 19, 1995. There ain't no such thing as a coincidence," Trentadue said.

He said government officials claim the security cameras did not record the minutes before the bombing because "they had run out of tape" or "the tape was being replaced."

"The interesting thing is they spring back on after 9:02," he said. "The absence of footage from these crucial time intervals is evidence that there is something there that the FBI doesn't want anybody to see."

COMMENT:  Well, maybe, maybe not.  There may be a valid technical explanation.  Also, Mr. Trentadue has a personal interest in the case, as the story shows.

Still, this is something that good investigative journalists should follow.  Blanks on tapes are often causes for real concern.  The 18-minute gap in a tape made by President Richard M. Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, was a key piece of evidence in the Watergate investigations.  A blank in tapes made of children helped convince journalists in the 1980s that a child-abuse case was fraudulent. 

Care must be taken.  I've never seen a conspiracy theory pan out.  But any indication of tampering with evidence - like editing a tape - must be examined.

September 27, 2009