FBI Finds Explosives in Nichols' Old Home

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FBI Finds Explosives in Nichols' Old Home

WTF?

Pursuing information they missed evidence a decade ago, FBI agents searched the former home of convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols and found blasting caps and other explosive materials apparently related to the 1995 attack, officials said Friday.

FBI officials said the material was found buried in a crawl space of the house in Herington, Kan., which wasn't checked by agents during the numerous searches of the property during the original investigation of Nichols and Timothy McVeigh.

"The information so far indicates the items have been there since prior to the Oklahoma City bombing," Agent Gary Johnson said in a telephone interview from Oklahoma City.


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The extraordinary discovery, just three weeks from the 10th anniversary of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people, is likely to prove a new embarrassment to an FBI already burned by missteps in this case and the pre-Sept. 11 period.

Nichols, who is serving multiple life prison sentences on federal and state charges, hasn't lived at the property for years, and FBI officials said the information that led to the discovery indicated Nichols had buried the evidence before the attack on April 19, 1995.

One of Nichols' attorneys said Friday the discovery was either a hoax or a major failure by the FBI to find all evidence after searching the home numerous times.

"They were there often," said attorney Brian Hermanson, who represented Nichols in last year's Oklahoma state murder trial that ended with Nichols' conviction. "It's surprising. I would think they would have done their job and found everything that was there."

"But I'm still suspicious that it could be something planted there," Hermanson said. "The house was empty for several years and if somebody wanted to put something there to incriminate Terry they had plenty of time to have done it."

Dan Defenbaugh, the retired FBI agent who ran the Oklahoma City investigation, said he was dismayed that his agency may have missed the evidence. "When you do a search warrant of that importance, you have to make sure it's thorough," he said.

CONTINUED

Is the FBI really this inept?