McVeigh’s Lawyer Seeks Files in Effort to Show Conspiracy

Timothy J. McVeigh’s lawyer asked for access to government intelligence files Tuesday on the Ku Klux Klan, European neo-Nazis and Mideast terrorist groups, hoping to show that the Oklahoma City bombing was the product of a conspiracy.

But a federal prosecutor insisted that investigators have no evidence the bombing that killed 168 people and injured more than 500 others was the work of foreign governments or terrorists.

McVeigh and co-defendant Terry L. Nichols arrived at a courthouse secured by police convoys and electronic scanners. It was the first hearing in the case in Denver since a federal judge moved the bombing trial from Oklahoma.

Prosecutor Beth Wilkinson acknowledged that the government at first put intelligence agencies to work on international angles to the bombing of Oklahoma City’s federal building. But she said that within two days of the attack, “the government learned through the FBI’s diligent investigation that the bombing had been carried out by a U.S. citizen. As of today, we have no information showing anyone but Mr. Nichols and Mr. McVeigh were the masterminds of this bombing.”

Stephen Jones, McVeigh’s attorney, said if that is true, it is because intelligence agencies quit searching after McVeigh’s arrest.

Prosecutors did agree to turn over letters from FBI agent Frederic Whitehurst, who tested McVeigh’s clothes for traces of explosives and has claimed that investigators faked evidence.