Government informant warned of attack. ABC news spiked the story
Shortly before Howe was charged by federal
prosecutors, Key said, "some in the major media" became aware of who she was and
what she was doing for the ATF.
NBC eventually ran a story about Howe and the Elohim City connection, as did
ABC. But, Key said, ABC was planning to follow up with a more in-depth report
focusing more on Howe's activities for the ATF, but "were 'encouraged' not to
run it."
Key told WND that former ABC producer Roger Charles -- who later went to work
for Key's OKC bombing committee as an investigator -- said, "ABC had interviewed
an assistant Justice Department official up in Denver (where McVeigh and Nichols
were tried) by the name of Lisa Brown, who was working for the main
prosecution's team."
According to Key, Charles "and a number of other media were asking questions
about Howe." Previously, Justice Department officials had denied knowing
anything about Howe and said she had no role in the OKC investigation or events
leading up to the bombing.
But ABC "eventually got Brown to make an admission on film" that government
officials "did know about Howe," but that "she had nothing to do with the case,
that she wasn't any big deal," Key said.
"But they got this admission, so they [ABC] were going to put this second piece
together, coupled with some other information, that was primarily about Carol
Howe," Key said. "But they got pressure put on them not to run it."
Undercover: The Howe Revelations
by William F. Jasper
To a tight circle of federal law enforcement officials she was known as
Confidential Informant 53270-183, or more commonly, CI-183. To her "comrades" in
the neo-Nazi and "Christian Identity" movements -- whom the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) and FBI had asked her to infiltrate and surveil --
she was known by the noms de guerre "Freya" and "Lady MacBeth." During the trial
of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing, she became more widely known
in press accounts by her real name: Carol Elizabeth Howe.
That is the name affixed to the ATF's "Informant Agreement" of August 25, 1994,
signed by Miss Howe and Special Agent Angela Finley (now Angela Finley-Graham)
of the ATF's Tulsa, Oklahoma office. McVeigh's defense team had sought to have
Howe testify concerning her allegations that she had warned her federal
supervisors prior to the bombing that subjects of her investigation were
planning to bomb federal buildings, including the one in Oklahoma City. But
jurors in the Denver trial of McVeigh never heard Carol Howe's name mentioned in
court, nor did they hear her testimony. Federal prosecutors filed motions to
prevent her appearance as a defense witness.
"Irrelevant" Witness
U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch ruled for the prosecution in a May 27th
decision that found Miss Howe's testimony "irrelevant" to the McVeigh trial. At
the time, Judge Matsch's ruling was astounding, since the "relevance" of Howe's
testimony is facially obvious. It was federal prosecutors, after all, who had
entered into evidence the records of a telephone debit card registered to
Timothy McVeigh under the name "Daryl Bridges." Among the calls listed was one
placed two weeks before the bombing, at 1:46 p.m. on April 5th, to Elohim City,
the main target of Howe's undercover work. The intended recipient of that call
was Andreas Strassmeir, whom Howe had identified before the bombing as one who
was plotting to blow up federal buildings and carry out shootings,
assassinations, and other acts of violence. Strassmeir has admitted in an
affidavit to having met McVeigh at a gun show and having purchased materials
from him.
However, there is considerable evidence indicating a much more substantial
connection. Witnesses in Herington, Kansas, for instance, where McVeigh once
lived and where his co-defendant Terry Nichols still lived at the time of the
bombing, state that Strassmeir was a friend of McVeigh. The McVeigh/Bridges call
to Strassmeir at Elohim City takes on even more relevance by virtue of the fact
that it was placed from the same phone (at the Kingman, Arizona motel where
McVeigh was staying), and on the same calling card, less than two minutes after
a call to the Ryder Truck Rental agency.
Even more astonishing evidence supporting Howe's charges was revealed in Howe's
own trial in Tulsa, which concluded with a complete acquittal on all counts on
August 1st. Howe's attorney, Clark O. Brewster,