OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. -- Two Oklahoma County reserve deputy sheriffs
said yesterday a congressman told them the night of the bombing, "We knew
this was going to happen, we blew it."
David Kochendorfer and Don Hammons, the two reserve officers, say Rep.
Ernest Istook, R-Okla., made the statement about advance knowledge of the
bombing.
"We got word through our sources that there is a radical fundamental
Islamic group in Oklahoma City and that they were going to bomb the federal
building," Kulkendorfer recalled Istook saying.
Hammonds said a photographer with Istook, Lana Tyree, confirmed to him
that Istook was aware of a bomb threat against the federal building since
April 9.
Both Tyree and Istook later denied making the statements and having
any knowledge of the bombing beforehand. "I certainly didn't," said Istook.
"I know of nobody in government that had any advance knowledge."
Kulkendorfer and Hammonds earlier had testified for several hours before
the county grand jury investigating the possibility of a broader conspiracy
to bomb the Murrah Federal building. The district attorney in Oklahoma
City plans to file 160 state murder charges in the Oklahoma bombing and
seek the death penalty against Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols,
despite their federal court convictions.
The charges will cover the victims other than the eight federal agents
whose deaths were the basis of McVeigh and Nichols' federal trials. District
Attorney Robert Macy has said the state charges are aimed at making sure
McVeigh and Nichols get the death penalty. McVeigh was given the death
penalty at his federal trial. Nichols' life was spared last week.
Macy has said he can prosecute without violating the men's constitutional
protection against double jeopardy because the federal and state judicial
systems are separate. "No doubt about it. He can," said Rick Tepker, a
University of Oklahoma law professor. "The state of Oklahoma is regarded
as a separate sovereignty for purposes of double jeopardy and can enforce
its own laws."
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